By: Spletni časopis
The Court of Audit found a violation of the Public Finance Act in the improper planning of the purchase of a commercial building intended for judicial authorities, which the government hastily paid for from state reserves and reservations just before the new year. They also identified a failure to comply with the principles of efficiency and economy regarding the purchase of this building and the acquisition of 10,000 laptops. This is stated in the audit report on the final budget account for 2023, published today.
In its review of the state’s 2023 operations, the Court of Audit discovered irregularities in the use of budget reserves, the disbursement of general budget reservations, salaries, current and investment expenditures, and transfers. They noted that the use of reserve funds exceeding 2% of the available reserve was not decided by the National Assembly through a special law, as required. Funds allocated by a government decision for emergency road infrastructure repairs following storms up to early August 2023 were not entirely used for protecting human health and life, property, or the environment, nor for preventing further damage or ensuring basic conditions, as stipulated by the Natural and Other Disaster Protection Act.
A total of €6,674,144 from the general budget reserve was allocated to budget users for purposes that could have been planned in advance, including €6,500,000 for the purchase of a building intended for judicial authorities. In the area of current and investment expenditures, the most common irregularities were found in the procurement processes, which were associated with violations of the Public Procurement Act. There were also breaches of the Public Finance Act, particularly regarding the inadequate planning of the purchase of a building for judicial authorities and a lack of adherence to the principles of efficiency and economy related to the purchase of this building and 10,000 laptops.
The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Digital Transformation have responded to the auditors’ findings.
As a result of the purchase of the court building, Justice Minister Dominika Švarc Pipan was dismissed, whereas Finance Minister Klemen Boštjančič, who allocated millions from the budget reserve in violation of the law, remains in his position.
Regarding the purchase of 10,000 laptops, the auditors pointed out that the government had not enacted regulations to manage the mechanism and process for borrowing computer equipment. Irregularities in the field of transfers were primarily related to the lack of oversight over the operations of legal entities or their approved programmes. There were also issues with improperly assuming obligations (without written contracts or contracts made after services had started) and non-compliance with contractual terms, as well as issues with the timely provision of financial plan guidelines to indirect budget users, inadequate procedures for allocating funds to beneficiaries, and a lack of adherence to efficiency and economy principles. The Ministry of Health had already begun implementing activities to improve oversight over the allocation of funds to the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia in 2023. However, oversight of these payments and verification of the eligibility of claimed funds on monthly invoices before payment were still unsatisfactory. Similarly, the Ministry of Education and Sport had not yet implemented adequate oversight of payments to indirect budget users in 2023. The Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation had also failed to ensure timely oversight of the contractual obligations of the Public Agency for Research of the Republic of Slovenia (until May 10th, 2023) or the Public Agency for Scientific Research and Innovation of the Republic of Slovenia. Irregularities concerning the granting of concessions for the provision of public transport services in domestic road traffic had also not been resolved by 2023.
Parliament will discuss the 10,000 laptops, which are mostly still in storage in Logatec, for the second time at the request of the SDS. The SDS is once again seeking the removal of Minister Emilija Stojmenova Duh due to the standing laptops. The government defends the minister, arguing that the procurement was handled perfectly. According to the auditors’ evaluation of what the government deemed a “good purchase”:
“The Ministry signed contracts with suppliers for the purchase of 10,000 laptops and disbursed budget funds totalling €4,978,975. However, the regulation from the ninth paragraph of Article 23.a of the ZSDV, which would have detailed the management mechanism and process for borrowing computer equipment, had not been enacted. As a result, most of the purchased laptops were not in use by the end of 2023, leading to storage costs of €2,883 for the Ministry of Digital Transformation in 2023. Additionally, the 180-day supplier warranty for hidden defects, 1-year warranty periods, and 5-year period during which the supplier must ensure availability and compatibility of replacement parts began when the laptops were received. Given that computers are equipment that quickly becomes outdated, and should be distributed soon after purchase, we would expect the Ministry of Digital Transformation to have aligned the timing of the laptop purchase with the adoption of legal bases to manage the mechanism and process for borrowing computer equipment and thus expedite the distribution of the purchased laptops. Consequently, the Ministry of Digital Transformation did not act in accordance with the principles of efficiency and economy as required by Article 2, Paragraph 3 of the ZJF in budget execution.”
The full audit report, which provides a more extensive description of the controversial court building and laptop purchases, is available at: