By: Moja Dolenjska
The government of Robert Golob continues with political appointments to leading positions without the necessary competencies and required qualifications. Minister of Culture from the Levica party, Asta Vrečko, has appointed Marijan Rupert to lead the National and University Library (NUK) in Ljubljana, despite him not meeting all the necessary requirements.
Additionally, according to some sources, Rupert is a family friend of the minister and her family.
The illegal appointment was highlighted by the dismissed director of NUK, Viljem Leban, who took over the leadership of NUK during Marjan Šarec’s government in 2019.
In a special letter published by Požareport, Leban pointed out that Rupert’s appointment as acting director was illegal.
“The decree establishing the NUK institution specifies the conditions for appointing the director of NUK and consequently also for appointing the acting director of NUK. Among other conditions, it requires that the candidate has at least ten years of work experience in leading positions, of which at least five years of work experience must be in managing a public institution or service with the same or similar activities,” he wrote.
According to him, under the “Labour Relations Act, a leading employee is one who manages a business area or organisational unit with the employer and has the authority to enter into legal transactions or make independent personnel and organisational decisions.”
“Marijan Rupert has never held a leading position in NUK and has not had the authority to enter into legal transactions or make independent personnel and organisational decisions. He has never managed a public institution or service with the same or similar activities… The appointed person also did not have the required authority when he worked as a librarian and was appointed head of the manuscript collection by the director’s decree in 2006, which operated within the Special Collections Unit. Managing this represented 20 percent of his work obligations,” he pointed out.
“The job positions of ‘librarian’ and ‘librarian with a master’s degree’, on which the appointee worked under an employment contract, also do not include tasks or authority for entering into legal transactions or making independent personnel and organisational decisions and are not leading job positions. Therefore, the Minister of Culture has appointed a candidate who does not meet the conditions for the position of acting director of NUK,” Leban further stated.