By: Peter Jančič
By appointing an additional state secretary to the Prime Minister’s office, Robert Golob responded to the catastrophic floods this week. He began his governance by increasing the number of ministries by five, resulting in one of the largest cabinets in our history and in the EU. Now, we have obtained the twelfth state secretary to the Prime Minister’s office. This role has been taken up by Boštjan Šefic. Media reported earlier in August that Danijel Levičar became the eleventh state secretary, responsible for the JEK2 project. The increased number of ministers, ministries, and a multitude of new state secretaries across various ministries and within the Prime Minister’s office, indicates that this government struggles with its responsibilities. Golob seems to require more and more assistance to manage the tasks at hand.
The government, with a significant increase in the number of officials, has announced that they will also ensure substantially higher salaries for them. They first attempted to increase salaries for judges by providing a €600 supplement, which they tried to legitimise through the emergency procedure related to natural disasters due to Robert Golob’s promise. However, this endeavour failed. For judges and other officials, this was beneficial. Now, it appears that they will receive considerably more. Given that the country has incurred significant damage due to unregulated watercourses and inadequate flood protection, including impacts on national infrastructure, the workload is likely to increase further.
We have an above-average number of judges per hundred thousand inhabitants in Europe. Judicial backlogs are also above average. Moreover, within the judiciary, except at the very top of the pyramid, there are almost no men. At least the salaries will be better. The government has reportedly already quietly agreed on how much to increase salaries for judges and all other officials. According to unofficial information obtained by journalist Peter Lovšin from the Ljubljanski Dnevnik, the lowest monthly gross salary for a district judge will be €4,289, while the highest, which includes the presidents of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court along with other high-ranking officials, will be €8,466 according to the new salary scale. The increase will be substantial. The highest salaries are also received by the heads of all other branches of power: alongside Prime Minister Golob, the President of the National Assembly Urška Klakočar Zupančič and Nataša Pirc Musar. This week, Urška Klakočar Zupančič received €6,279, while Nataša Pirc Musar received €6,473 in gross salary. The amounts differ due to varying seniority allowances. I am still awaiting information on the salaries of the prime minister and his multitude of state secretaries and ministers from the government. A salary increase of at least two thousand euros, as indicated by the information about judges, will be a significant addition.
Indeed, those are not the highest state salaries. Higher salaries are received by lower-level executives. Last week, the media reported on payments for the month of May, when the top three earners in “the country’s public sector” were the director of the Museum and Gallery of the City of Ljubljana with €22,062, the director of the Festival Ljubljana public institution with €19,473, and the director of the General Hospital Izola with €17,703. Such high sums usually include bonuses, allowances, or similar items. Regardless, they are certainly scandalous and indicate that our public sector is doing very well financially. Money is not in short supply. Just like water.
Former President of the Republic Borut Pahor and Milan Kučan are true paupers compared to the highest-earning lower-level executives in the public sector, as they receive 80 percent of the presidential salary. For the month of July 2023, Pahor received a salary compensation in the gross amount of €5,256, while Kučan, who is also entitled to a monthly allowance that, combined with his pension, ensures him 80 percent of the presidential salary, received a gross €1,533 pension supplement for the month of July 2023. The exact amount of Kučan’s allowance is a secret. The net amount is more than three thousand.
For further information, read HERE – in Slovene.
