By: Moja Dolenjska
“While citizens are preoccupied with energy fees, whether to use boilers or not, bans on lighting during nighttime hours, and the threat of hefty fines… the government is allocating millions to companies with strong connections. The fewer employees they have, the larger the amounts they receive.”
This was posted on the social media platform X by MP Jože Tanko, commenting on the recent developments regarding a tender for promoting investments in economic restructuring in the Zasavje and Savinja-Šalek coal mining regions.
Two companies, VonPharma and Vital QI, which together employed a total of five people, were granted nearly €20 million under the tender. VonPharma received €10 million, and Vital QI €9.7 million.
VonPharma, owned and directed by Tadej Von Horvath, had an average of 3.91 employees and total revenues of €1.3 million.
Vital QI, initially established as Magna QI in 2022 by the same Tadej Von Horvath, originally focused on hospitality and tourism. In April 2023, just a month before the tender’s announcement, the company’s ownership changed to Miha Tetičkovič, and it was rebranded as Vital QI, now a pharmaceutical company.
In 2023, Vital QI averaged just one employee and reported revenues of €24,000.
In Finance newspaper, among the recipients of funds from the call, they highlighted the company Novast, which had no employees in 2023, but had 108,000 euros in net sales revenue and 72,000 euros in profit. The company received 7.2 million euros from the call.
After the public disclosure, the Minister for Economy, Tourism, and Sports, Matjaž Han (also the president of the SD party), ordered an internal audit of the public call, setting an unreasonably long deadline for it, until March 2025. Han (publicly) believes that two months is too short for the audit. The money was distributed by the public agency Spirit Slovenia, which issued decisions about the selection, and contracts usually follow. However, payments are not expected to have been made yet.
Among experts, there are increasing warnings about the strong connections between the selected companies or individuals and the SD party.
