Public Administration Ministry

Ljubljana – Slovenia ranks 21st among 193 countries in the latest United Nations e-government survey 2022. The country gained two spots compared to 2020, showing progress in all components of the survey, the Public Administration Ministry said in a press release on Monday.

Ljubljana – Public Administration Minister Sanja Ajanović Hovnik commented on Thursday on the dismissal of Bojan Babič as the director of the Ljubljana administrative unit, saying the decision had not been politically motivated. Babič agrees and will not appeal, as this would not suspend his dismissal, and a deputy head has already been appointed.

Ljubljana – Nurses, staff at social care institutions and pharmacies went on strike this morning after yesterday’s negotiations brought no meaningful progress, neither a pay increase similar to a recently agreed one for doctors and dentists. Public broadcaster RTV Slovenija has reported that 50,000 staff would be on strike today.

Ljubljana – The Court of Audit has examined drug procurement practices in three public pharmacy chains to find that medicine procurement in the country is still in disarray and public pharmacies keep flouting public procurement rules.

The court issued an adverse opinion to Pomurske Lekarne, Lekarna Velenje and Lekarna Sevnica after examining their drug purchasing practices in 2020.

Ljubljana – Prime Minister Janez Janša said that the response to the Covid-19 pandemic had been belated in particular in countries where governments needed to get parliamentary approval to take measures, as he addressed an international online conference on governments and public sector post-recovery on Monday.

Ljubljana – The government adopted a decree on Sunday, raising the lump sum which municipalities receive per resident from the state. In 2022 the sum will rise from EUR 628 to EUR 645 and in 2023 to EUR 647, the Public Administration Ministry said on Twitter.

Ljubljana – A cooperation agreement between the government and the Ljubljana municipality which was signed in May has been expanded by additional 21 projects. Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković and Public Administration Minister Boštjan Koritnik signed the amendments on Friday.

Ljubljana – Improving cybersecurity across the EU will be one of the priorities of Slovenia’s EU presidency during its six-month stint in the second half of the year. Uroš Svete, head of the country’s Information Security Administration, says Slovenia will strive to improve the exchange of information among member states and boost security culture.

Luxembourg – Public Administration Minister Boštjan Koritnik attended a session of the EU’s Telecommunications Council in Luxembourg on Friday to present Slovenia’s EU presidency priorities in digitalisation. He said that Slovenia was placing digitalisation, development of artificial intelligence and cyber security high on the agenda.

Ljubljana – Doctors from a group termed zdravstvo.si have left a Health Ministry task force in charge of changing public procurement procedures in healthcare because their proposal to eliminate price anomalies in procurement of medical devices has not been welcomed. They also oppose fees that would have to be paid to the national medical agency.