By: UKOM
The District Court in Ljubljana annulled the enforcement orders for the recovery of EUR 169,000.00 for January 2021 and EUR 169,000.00 for February 2021, issued by the District Court in Ljubljana against the Government Communication Office (UKOM) on the basis of the motion for enforcement filed by Slovenska tiskovna agencija, d.o.o., represented by Bojan Veselinović through the law firm Kozinc and Partners o.p., d.o.o. They also added that the court will decide on the claim and costs in civil proceedings before the District Court in Ljubljana.
As is already known, in 2020 UKOM had a contract with the Slovenian Press Agency, which expired on 31 December 2020. UKOM settled all of its obligations to the Slovenian Press Agency under this contract in January 2021, while Director Veselinović has still not fulfilled his contractual obligations and submitted the required documentation to UKOM, which would enable an overview of the transparency of operations and spending of taxpayers’ money. Director Veselinović did not want to hand over this documentation, despite the fact that he himself signed a contract in which UKOM is clearly named as the founder’s representative. At the end of October 2020, director Veselinović recalled that UKOM was not a representative of the founder, which is why he was not obliged to hand over the documentation.
Regardless of the fact that there is no contract between the Slovenian Press Agency and UKOM in 2021 that would in any way determine mutual business relations, director Veselinović sent invoices to UKOM for the alleged performance of public service. UKOM has therefore repeatedly called on him to sign a contract for 2021 and regulate the financing of the Slovenian Press Agency in accordance with the law.
All of the above was also submitted by UKOM in the objection against enforcement for the month of January, which was proposed by the representative of Slovenska tiskovna agencija d.o.o., Bojan Veselinović, and the law firm Kozinc and partners o.p., d.o.o. In addition, UKOM reviewed the actual state of implementation of the Slovenian Press Agency Act and found that the Slovenian Press Agency does not fulfil the legally prescribed public service. Moreover, part of what is defined in the law as a public service and should be freely available to all under the same conditions, is sold on the market as part of a marketing activity.
Source: gov.si