By: Nina Žoher
The so-called whistleblower Ivan Gale, who, together with the creators of the TV show Tarča, launched a fake scandal, related to the purchasing of protective equipment with the intention of slandering the government, which has been dealing with the epidemic since its first day in office, is apparently returning to the public eye. After the Constitutional Arch Coalition somehow gave up on Gale, the European Institute of Compliance and Ethics (Evropski inštitut za skladnost in etiko poslovanja) decided to invite Gale to its New Year’s compliance breakfast. This is an institute that has already drawn more than 30 thousand euros of the taxpayers’ money so far.
The invitation to New Year’s compliance breakfast with Ivan Gale states that the event will take place on Wednesday, the 16th of December, via the Zoom web application. “We will discuss whistleblowing in Slovenia in light of the current situation, and the preparedness of organizations to the EU directive on the protection of whistleblowers. We will also talk about how we deal with whistleblowing in companies and what is the role of the compliance experts in all of this,” is what the description of the event reads. Participation in the event is free for the members of the European Institute of Compliance and Ethics, while other most pay 45 euros + VAT to attend.
That is quite a lot of money, especially considering that Gale is not, in fact, a whistleblower and that he is actually responsible for certain purchases of the medical ventilators and protective equipment, worth tens of millions of euros. He has also been criminally charged for making untrue allegations in an oral criminal complaint he filed with the National Bureau of Investigation, in connection with the procurement of protective equipment. Gale also applied for the position of director of the Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Commodity Reserves.
They received the highest amount of public funds when Šarec’s government was leaving
The European Institute for Compliance and Ethics, which has chosen Gale as its main guest, is based at Dalmatinova ulica 2 in Ljubljana. It is a private institution that has been operating since 2014. Judging by the data available on their official website, their main activities are education, research and development in the field of compliance and business ethics, and care for the development of the profession of compliance officer in Slovenia and the wider Central European region.
From September 2015 until today, they have received 32,876.13 euros of public funds, the web application Erar reveals. Most of the money came from Eles, DRI Investment Management, Company for the Development of Infrastructure, and the Securities Market Agency. In March of this year, when Šarec’s government was leaving, they received the largest sum of money to their accounts – an amount of 6,197.60 euros.
Gale realized that this plan would not pan out
Gale was last spotted on the 5th of November, at the violent protest in Ljubljana, where the police were forced to use a water cannon to break up the crowd. Namely, photos of him there made rounds on social media, which cast doubt on his claim that Friday’s cyclists had nothing to do with the violence and the protest on the 5th of November. The fact that Gale joined the protest was not surprising, as he also promoted the event on his Facebook profile, ahead of the protest. Eventually, he also came to protest in person. Prior to that, he often took part in the anti-government protests, where he expressed his disagreement with the current government. He was also spotted close to the representatives of the opposition.
After the interpellation against Minister Zdravko Počivalšek miserably failed, as Počivalšek successfully refuted all allegations made against him in regard to the procurement of protective equipment – with evidence, and also revealed that Gale himself had signed many of the contracts of the Agency for Commodity Reserves, the opposition began searching for their new saviour. And they found him – at first, it was Jože P. Damijan, and now it is Karl Erjavec. Despite the epidemic, the opposition keeps dreaming about power. Gale, however, has apparently realized that his plan will not pan out, so he is seeking new opportunities.
