By: Luka Perš / Nova24tv.si
“I have had enough of lies and manipulations regarding the Court of Auditors’ report. Therefore, in addition to the requests for corrections, I will also file lawsuits against the media that are spreading it,” said the president of the second largest government party SMC. Minister Počivalšek also added a text demanding the correction of the text in Odlazek’s media Necenzurirano.
During the current government, the majority media staged a real witch hunt in revealing the “affairs” of Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek. Due to the long-term dominance in the media market (90 percent of coverage), the opinions of the left wing central media in Slovenia are considered dominant. However, the covid crisis and the functioning of the current government showed that the left wing rulers of the media space (POP TV, RTV SLO, Večer, Dnevnik, Delo, Mladina, Odlazek’s media empire) are just an extended arm of the opposition left parties united in the failed KUL coalition project.
Due to numerous manipulations in connection with the report of the Court of Audit of the Republic of Slovenia on the purchase of protective equipment, there are so many media manipulations that Minister Počivalšek is determined to defend his interests legally. Thus, in his communication, he rejected the allegations that the Court of Audit’s audit proposal shows that the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology and the departmental minister played a key role in the supply of protective equipment during the first wave of the epidemic. Namely, this was one of the stakeholders involved in the process of supplying protective and medical equipment.
Počivalšek repeated once more
Next, it is pointed out that it is not true that the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology did not initially have any powers. Jurisdiction for the purchase of emergency medical equipment was granted on the basis of government decisions, which also enabled the purchase of protective and medical equipment. At the same time, according to him, it is not true that the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology transferred all responsibility to the Agency for Commodity Reserves. The Ministry points out that the Agency for Commodity Reserves and the Ministry cooperated, also together with other stakeholders.
The whole affair was made up in the show Tarča when a so-called whistleblower and former employee of the Agency for Commodity Reserves Ivan Gale appeared. They argued that the deal was made with GenePlanet for the purchase of ventilators. They proved this with an illegal recorded telephone conversation between Počivalšek and the former director of the Agency for Commodity Reserves, Anton Zakrajšek. The affair was once again rejected by Počivalšek. The Minister reports that at that time, together with his colleagues at the Ministry, he passed on information to the Agency about the need to purchase ventilators, the great instability of the medical equipment market, and the need to take action. The Ministry of Economic Development and Technology also provided the Agency for Commodity Reserves with information on ventilators that the profession assessed as appropriate, and on the offers for these ventilators.
There was a lot of talk in the Slovenian public that GenePlanet ventilators are useless and harmful. However, these same media did not problematize the dangerous ventilators of the Bellavista company, which were offered by a member of the expert group for ventilators, dr. Rihard Knafelj. Several Slovenian media wrote that the Ministry gave excuses based on the positive opinion of dr. Matej Podbregar from the Celje hospital.
However, this argument was also rejected by the team of Minister Zdravko Počivalšek. The Ministry admits that they never referred to Podbregar’s opinion on the suitability of Sirusmed R 30 ventilators for general use, the silenced Podbregar’s warning that this is the most basic model of the lower class and that at this price they could buy the best Sirusmed R 50+ ventilators with all additional options. However, Sirusmed R 50+ ventilators were not available at the time of purchase of the R 30 for at least another six to nine months, wherein the R30 ventilators were equipped with all optional equipment.