By: Dr Vinko Gorenak
When I served as the Minister of the Interior a little over ten years ago, I always had to be very careful with how the budgetary funds were spent. It was during the second Janša government, and the country was literally on the verge of bankruptcy, with the looming threat of the so-called international troika that would take control of our finances. My main challenge was how to secure funding for salaries. The situation indicated that layoffs of police officers might be necessary. That was my biggest concern, as I was aware that under the law, younger employees would be the first to lose their jobs.
Among other budget items, I paid special attention to so-called external consultants and contracts with them. Such contracts, according to the law, can only be made if the required tasks cannot be carried out within the system. For me, that mostly meant translators for exotic languages, primarily for the needs of migrants. I remember only one other case where I judged that the Ministry of the Interior did not have people with the required expertise to write a response to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, which ordered Slovenia to remedy the alleged injustices done to the so-called erased people. At that time, we hired external legal experts, who were paid around 21,000 euros for their work. I still remember pondering how to justify this amount to the public and the media. And I did justify it, but some still “crucified” me over the payment of that sum.
Today, the legislation in this area has not changed much. Ministries can still hire external experts for certain tasks, but only if there is no suitable staff within the ministry or the wider public administration.
I must openly say that I was extremely unpleasantly surprised by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia’s response to the parliamentary question posed by MP Anton Šturbej, who asked about the amount of money ministries allocate for so-called external collaborators. The response from the Government was truly astounding. Ministries allocated 3,581,567.29 euros for external collaborators in 2023, and already 3,892,255.28 euros in 2024. However, the situation varies across ministries, some cannot do without certain external contractors and the related costs, while others are clearly overspending. So, let’s look at some details.
The biggest spender in this regard is the Ministry of Health, which allocated 403,682.24 euros for external consultants in 2023, and as much as 727,386.70 euros in 2024. Their focus recently has been the amendment of the law converting the voluntary health contribution into a mandatory one, and of course, the ban on doctors working in private healthcare institutions. It would be interesting to see who the recipients of these funds are.
Another major spender on external consultants is the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Energy, which spent 449,203.34 euros in 2023 and 545,711.26 euros in 2024. The Ministry of Health also stands out, having spent €403,682.24 for these purposes in 2023, and as much as €727,386.70 in 2024.
Not all ministries are in the same position, though. The Ministry of the Interior spends a significant portion of its funds on translators for undocumented migrants. Therefore, the spending on external contractors by the Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development is completely incomprehensible. It is well known that this ministry is completely ineffective when it comes to drawing EU funds, which makes it even harder to understand why they spent 364,707.30 euros on external consultants in 2023, and as much as 462,412.34 euros in 2024.
A more detailed analysis of these costs would certainly be interesting – it would likely reveal a flow of money toward friends, acquaintances, and political supporters.