STA, 17 December 2018 - A report on Slovenia's EU funds drawing commissioned by former Minister Marko Bandelli, who was forced to resign in November, points to serious issues at the Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy that could cost the country up to EUR 68m in EU funds.
Bandelli ordered a new report after his team found irregularities in the old report, reads an attachment to the report, which was initially planned as public but was sent to Prime Minister Marjan Šarec separately after the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) and Šarec agreed on Bandelli's successor.
The leaked document, obtained by the STA, points to irregularities such as discrepancies between the data on the drawing of EU funds available to the public and those available to his office.
IT seems to be one cause of the problem
The government office has had issues with the information system for some time now, but Bandelli's team said in the document that the trouble with the system, which has compatibility issues with the IT system at the Finance Ministry, was such that "it poses a serious threat that Slovenia will (permanently) lose the awarded funds for the first time this year".
Slovenia has to use the EU funds earmarked for the country until 2015 by the end of this year. According to Development and European Cohesion Policy Office State Secretary Nevenka Ribič, Slovenia could lose around EUR 68m because of the issues.
"I hope we'll bring the figure to zero on time, but I cannot make any promises. We're working on it," she said, adding that it had appeared at first that more than EUR 180m were at risk of being lost.
Moreover, the leaked document says that the office was not quick enough in tackling the issues in the previous term, when it was led by Alenka Smerkolj.
According to the document, an audit carried out by the company KPMG unveiled these issues, but the office failed to act on it.
On the other hand, Igor Lakota, the deputy government secretary-general who headed Smrekolj's cabinet in the previous term, told the STA on Monday that the report did not paint a realistic picture.
There have been issues, he acknowledged, but the audit by KPMG led to Smrekolj finding a new contractor for the IT system, which managed "to resolve some of the key issues we had".
In turn, the payments mainly started in September, and Lakota says that only EUR 19m in EU funds are still under threat at the moment, but that these claims are to be sent to the Finance Ministry, "so all the funds will be taken care of".
Lakota may be fired and investigated by the police over irregularities
Moreover, Lakota and three other employees of the office in the previous term, point fingers at the previous government's decision to keep the office and the Finance Ministry on separate IT systems instead of using a single one.
"This has led to a very complicated system ... for the ministries and the end uses of the funds," they said in a response to the document they sent to Šarec, who is reportedly seriously considering letting Lakota go.
Commercial broadcaster POP TV reported that Lakota is a person of interest in two investigations related to his stint at the office, with the police investigating the IT system and connected public procurement, and the public inspectorate investigating alleged irregularities with which Lakota increased his monthly earnings by around EUR 600.
