By: Ana Horvat / Nova24TV
“Hundreds of millions of euros, taxpayers’ euros, have been allocated by the #governmentRS to rehabilitate the state’s energy sector. And Golob talks about awards?” was the response of the champion of the largest opposition party SDS, Janez Janša. His comment followed the news that Prime Minister Robert Golob “gave up” the million-dollar award for business performance. What kind of reward is Golob talking about when he put GEN-I on the curb, and how can he “give up” something that does not even belong to him?
The mainstream media is once again embellishing matters when it comes to Robert Golob. They talked about how he “gave up” the million-dollar award for business performance, when the fact is that, firstly, the GEN-I assembly passed the decision that the awards for 2021 will not be paid to the management, and secondly, about what award and business success does Golob dream about, when GEN-I had to obtain a guarantee from the state to ensure a reliable supply of electricity?
Robert Golob is said to have renounced the award for business performance, but the fact is that the GEN-I General Assembly officially adopted a decision to present to the members of the management for signing an agreement stating that entitlement to the award for extraordinary business performance of the Gen-I group in the year 2021 did not occur and they are not entitled to the annual award for the business year. Golob signed the agreement, which was the least he could do. Let us remind you that GEN-I employees have extremely high salaries and bonuses and that we were aware of how well Robert Golob served during the time of managing the state energy company – in just under 11 months, he led the company until November 17th, 2021, Golob received 200,692 euros into the account, Slovenske novice wrote.
200,000 euros in salary – and a guarantee requirement
The mainstream media wrote about how good a businessman he is, but then we found out that GEN-I is not doing so well, because last September the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia had to adopt a package of energy legislation, on the basis of which the state would, with the aim of ensuring reliable electricity and gas supply companies to HSE, GEN energija, and Geoplin provided guarantees worth up to a total of 1.6 billion euros for access to liquidity for electricity trading and gas purchases outside the EU.
Former Prime Minister Janez Janša also reacted to the news of the “cancellation” of the award on social networks, writing: “Hundreds of millions of euros, taxpayers’ euros, have been allocated by #vladaRS to rehabilitate the state energy sector. And Golob talks about awards? Will #mfinance_gov_si Boštjančič also receive an award for the bankruptcy of Adria? “Golob gave up the award for business performance.”
Such a good “business performance” that GEN-I needed a guarantee from the state
During the election campaign, Golob claimed all the time that GEN-I is a great company, that it does excellent business in foreign markets, that we have the cheapest electricity, which was obviously (another) big lie, because otherwise why would a well-functioning company needed a guarantee from the state and why does Slovenia have the second highest electricity price in the European Union, if most of the energy, as much as 80 percent, is produced in the country ourselves?
The Act on State Guarantees for the obligations of loans taken out to ensure liquidity on the organised electricity markets and emission coupons and obligations from the purchase of additional quantities of natural gas outside the EU market provides guarantees for the companies Holding Slovenske elektrarne (HSE), GEN energija with the vertically related company GEN-I and Geoplin. These companies are entitled to a state guarantee in the amount of 80 percent of the obligations arising from the loans taken out, namely HSE up to a total amount of 800 million euros of principal, GEN energija and GEN-I up to a total amount of 400 million euros and Geoplin up to a total amount of 400 million euros.