Unfortunately, the only document that the UKOM received from the STA was an invoice for alleged public service performed in March in the amount of EUR 169,000.00.

The conduct of Director Veselinović seems more than unusual, but it is in any case unacceptable and reprehensible. First and foremost in regard to all the employees of the Slovenian Press Agency who care about the future of the company and, like the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, wish for the transparent and legal operations of their company. Transparent operations also equal decent and fair payment for all employees and not only certain individuals.

As already known, the Government Communication Office forwarded several requests to the Director of the STA in October 2020 to submit documentation as per Article 6 of the contract concluded between the UKOM and the STA. These documents should include:

• monthly profit and loss statements for the past 24 months and the balance sheet,
• account cards of all income in the last 24 months,
• bank account statements for the last 24 months,
• copies of all contracts with clients,
• list of all clients and all possible price changes for each year separately – for the last five years.

Why did the UKOM request the relevant documentation? It was previously established in May 2020 that the Director of the STA was showing a monthly loss in the amount of EUR 5,000.00 arising from public service. Upon further investigation, it was determined that this loss had in previous years been compensated with an arbitrary number of annexes to basic contracts. The operations in 2020 were set out in a similar way. Irrespective of the fact that the basic contract was concluded on 19 December 2019, the Director of the STA discovered two months later that he had made a mistake in the business plan and concluded an additional contract with the UKOM for EUR 50,000.00. On these grounds, the Director of the STA was asked in June 2020 to consolidate the operations. But he nevertheless showed time and again the same loss in the monthly reports.

The UKOM also detected suspicions of the abuse of position by Director Veselinović relating to the so-called countertrading with selected companies. The most conspicuous was the company in which he published full-page advertisements and by which he was previously employed. According to some data, the compensations with this company started immediately after Veselinović was appointed the Director of the STA. As revealed publicly, the STA supposedly incurred damages in the amount of EUR 250,000.00 by making payments to this one specific company.