One Third of State Secretaries Transparent About Their Assets
Klara Škrinjar, Maja Čakarić, Matej Zwitter, Samo Demšar
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Only 19 of the 50 state secretaries provided Oštro with copies of their asset forms. In the second installment of the Asset Detector project, we find that the main issues are in understanding and declaring companies linked to family members.
Illustration: Jernej Žumer
Key findings:
Journalists collected and verified 339 pieces of data on the assets of newly appointed state secretaries and ministers.
Out of 50 state secretaries, 19 provided the editorial with a copy of their asset declaration form to the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (CPC)[J2] .
As of the publication of the second part of the investigation, the list of entities with business restrictions showed no companies, institutions, or self-employed persons related to nine of the state secretaries.
Representatives of the Ministry of Justice and the CPC will meet in February to discuss the proposed legislative amendments concerning the public disclosure of information on the assets of political officials.
After we revealed last May that only one civil servant was in charge of overseeing the assets of some 22,000 public officials, the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption has engaged two more.
“The reason I didn’t declare it when entering office is that I simply forgot about his ownership, as he rarely says anything about this company where he’s not involved in the management”. This is how Maša Kociper, State Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, responded to the question why her husband’s company is not on the list of business entities subject to restrictions on dealing with state bodies.
She assured that the Prime Minister’s Office had not worked with this company or others related to it during her employment. However, Kociper says that the legal requirement for officials to know all the ownership and business dealings of their family members can be “highly impractical. What if you are not in contact with that family member?”
Her slip-up was not an isolated case. At least three other state secretaries admitted to Oštro that they had supplemented their CPC obligations after receiving questions from the press.
In the scope of Oštro’s Asset Detector project, which collects and publishes information on the assets of Slovenian government officials, we are this time publishing information concerning state secretaries and some updated information on the assets of ministers.
The editorial asked all 50 state secretaries for a copy of their asset declaration form. Ultimately, only 19 shared the document with journalists, while nine shared a copy of their change of assets form. When the project was first published in May 2023, just four ministers did so.
Two state secretaries sent a copy of their asset declaration form for viewing, but did not allow the information to be published. In these cases we only published information on the assets that were identified independently, through public databases and investigative journalism methods.
State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Igor Šoltes, shared his asset form with Oštro and answered additional questions. On the form he submitted to the editorial, namely, we noticed that he had not declared three plots of land in the municipality of Šalovci with a total area of 7984 square meters.
He explained that he failed to report them because of an oversight in the form submitted to the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (CPC) in 2020, adding that he had “no intention of concealing any information”.
Šoltes had reported all three plots to the CPC in the past, and after receiving questions from Oštro he “immediately informed the CPC of the error – a faulty transcription”. He also informed his employer of connected entities subject to business restrictions, as he had “overlooked this obligation when taking office”, Šoltes disclosed in his reply.
As previously reported, anti-corruption experts point out that the public disclosure of politicians’ assets is crucial for monitoring conflicts of interest and possible misappropriation of funds. However, in Slovenia, only data on changes in assets is currently published – stripped of nearly all the details the public would require to monitor and assess whether changes in an official’s assets are in line with their income.
Last May, we revealed that a single employee at the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption was responsible for monitoring the assets of some 22,000 public officials. Today there are three such employees. The CPC is currently undergoing a reorganisation which, they have announced, will optimise its operation.
Journalists discovered 339 units of property
Using investigative and data journalism methods, journalists identified and verified 339 assets of the newly appointed state secretaries and ministers. All the information was subject to several internal checks before publication, and was shared with the individual officials.
More than half of the state secretaries confirmed, supplemented, or corrected the information gathered by the journalists, while others did not respond to the initiative at all.
19 state secretaries sent us copies of their asset forms, 27 only replied to the questions, while 20 neither sent forms nor replied. Some of them explained only that they had declared their assets to the CPC as required by law.
In their replies, some state secretaries expressed their support of the Asset Detector project and pointed to the importance of data transparency. However, not everyone agreed on what this should look like.
For example, Jure Gašparič, State Secretary at the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, supports the purpose of the project as he believes that information on the assets of officials should be fully transparent and public, regulated at the level of the competent institutions: “Those who hide their assets and do not even disclose them to the competent institutions will surely hide them from the press as well”.
Jure Trbič, State Secretary at the Ministry of Public Administration, who provided his asset data, interprets the project in a somewhat broader sense: “Legal obligations, as I understand the law, represent a ‘minimum standard’ and in the role/office I currently have the honor to occupy, it seems to me that it is right to pursue more than just the bare minimum”, he said when asked why he was willing to share this information with the press.
He went on to explain that most of his “real wealth is in knowledge, integrity and dignity”, while his or his partner’s material wealth “has (been) honestly acquired through work and creativity, which I have the habit of monetizing”.
“Cumbersome legal requirements”
Under the Integrity Act, when family members of ministry officials become owners of a company or its representatives, ministers must report this within eight days to the ministry, which in turn reports it to the CPC. The CPC maintains a list of entities subject to restrictions on dealing with state bodies, thus protecting the use of public funds from potential private interests.
In the first part of the Asset Detector investigation, which started in September 2022, it came to light that several ministries did not provide the CPC with information on such companies. As a result of the findings of Oštro, the Commission initiated offense proceedings against seven ministers and eventually issued reprimands. Following the Oštro inquiry they have all complied with this obligation.
As of the publication of the second part of the investigation, the list of entities subject to business restrictions showed no companies, institutions, or self-employed persons related to nine of the state secretaries.
Some of them, specifically six, have reportedly corrected the irregularities immediately.
Igor Šoltes did not declare a restriction on business activities for four entities linked to his family members. As he explained to Oštro, he had overlooked this legal obligation when taking office, but after receiving questions from the press he already communicated all four entities to the Ministry of Justice which then forwarded the information to the CPC.
Danijel Levičar, State Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, did not report his immediate family member’s sole proprietorship to the Commission. He told Oštro he had reported it after receiving questions from the press. It was placed on the list of restrictions on 10 January.
Melita Župevc, State Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, did not report two companies owned by her partner, former Prime Minister Anton Rop, to the CPC. We have not yet received her response.
Marko Rusjan, State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, also failed to declare three related legal entities. Among these is the KUD Kreatura Moonlee association, which, according to Erar, received €3,400 from the Ministry of Culture during Rusjan’s term of office, in October 2022.
The Ministry explained to Oštro that the association received the funds on the basis of a public call for proposals for the selection of cultural projects in the field of musical arts in 2022. The deadline for applications to this tender had expired in April 2022, before the appointment of Rusjan, who was therefore not involved in any stage of the procedure. The Ministry was already aware of the fact that the representative of KUD Kreatura Moonlee is a family member of Rusjan.
The list of companies with business restrictions also does not contain the law firm of the husband of Maša Kociper, State Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office. In her response to journalists, she claimed that upon taking office she had submitted his then attorneyship, which has since been transformed into a limited liability company. After receiving questions from the press she also reported this company, she explained.
The company BLS, co-owned by her husband, has also not been reported to the CPC. As Kociper explained to Oštro, she “simply forgot about his ownership, as he rarely says anything about this company where he’s not involved in the management”. According to her, being closely familiar with all the ownership and business dealings of family members is rather cumbersome, she added.
Kociper assured that the Prime Minister’s Office had not done business with her husband’s law firm or the company BLS during her employment, as confirmed by Erar data.
Other state secretaries who have also failed to declare business entities include Igor Feketija, Luka Omladič, Klemen Ploštajner, and Sanja Štiglic.
CPC has drafted amendments to the law
The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption began publishing limited information on changes in the assets of officials in February 2022, although the Integrity and Prevention of Corruption Act has provided for this since 2010.
The Ministry of Justice has previously noted that the current publication of data does not achieve the legal purpose for which it was implemented.
“The data does not show the type of assets involved, nor the value of individual assets, which does not allow the public to form any opinion about the assets of officials. Such publication is therefore not a way to build trust in the functioning of the public sector”, they explained to Oštro in May.
However, the Information Commissioner is opposed to the publication of specific types of data since the legal basis for this is not sufficiently clear. The CPC is thus in a difficult spot. In their annual report for 2022, they explained that if they had followed the opinion of the Ministry of Justice and made the comprehensive data public, the situation would have been illegal.
Due to the conflicting opinions of the Information Commissioner and the Ministry of Justice on making the data public, the CPC has commissioned an independent expert opinion. It was prepared last January by former Minister of Justice and now legal adviser, Lilijana Kozlovič.
According to Kozlovič the only unambiguous understanding of the law is that officials have to report changes to the CPC, which in turn has to publish information on the increase or decrease of assets. If the legislator wants more detailed reporting and publication, this has to be made clear: “From the viewpoint of the principle of legality, clarity and predictability of law, any additional reporting requirements set out in the form should also be explicitly specified in the law”.
The Ministry of Justice considers that the interpretation of the law in practice is mainly within the jurisdiction of the CPC, an independent state body; or the courts if a court dispute arises in relation to the publication of information on changes in wealth, the courts should handle it.
Interpretation of the law in the lawsuit filed by Oštro last April is also being decided on by the Administrative Court.
Last February, the CPC sent to the Ministry of Justice a proposal for amendments to the law, including to Article 46 which provides for the public disclosure of information on changes in the assets of officials. As the Ministry of Justice explained to Oštro, the draft law amendments will be discussed with the CPC next month and will be taken into account when the Integrity Act is next amended. They did not clarify when this would be.
“The declaration of assets is not an end in itself and imposes an administrative burden on both the taxpayers and the CPC”, the Justice Ministry stated. Another important matter is the impact of the CPC’s monitoring, especially when it comes to identifying disproportionate increases in the assets of taxpayers. For example, the last amendment to the law in 2020 extended the possibility of supervision to the assets of the family members of taxable persons, if there is a suspicion that an official has concealed assets by transferring them to family members.
The assets of the new ministers
Publically available CPC data on changes in the property status of officials show that the newly appointed Minister of Agriculture, Mateja Čalušić, became the owner of two plots of land last year, with a total area of 2,025 square metres. Additionally, she is a co-owner of another 16 plots.
The form section on the value of cash exceeding €10,000 simply states “acquisition of cash”. It is not possible to find out any further details, as nearly all have been stripped from the published data.
Oštro has established that Čalušić is the owner of a single-family house in Koper, which since 2017 has been encumbered with a mortgage of 74,000 euro to secure a loan from the bank Intesa Sanpaolo. For most of the time until the end of September last year, she had owned only a one-third share, then became the sole owner after which she mortgaged the house for an additional €250,000.
Her immediate family owns at least three other companies and two plots of land.
We sent further questions to Čalušić soon after her appointment on 12 January, and will publish our response when we receive it.
The other new ministers, Valentina Prevolnik Rupel for Health, Franc Props for Public Administration, and Jože Novak for Natural Resources and Spatial Planning, have yet to respond to Oštro’s inquiry.
Novak owns a small plot of land (23 square metres) in Višnja Gora, while one of his family members owns a 104.1 square metre apartment in Ližnjan, an Istrian town near Medulin in Croatia.
Franc Props is the (co-)owner of a 113 square metre house, a stable and surrounding plots with a total area of 4.2 hectares in Dragovšek in the municipality of Šmartno by Litija. On 12 April last year, according to the Clearing and Depositary Company, he was also the owner of 80 shares in Petrol, 36 shares in Sava Re, 23 shares in Krka, 21 shares in Triglav Insurance Company, and three shares in SPL.
Valentina Prevolnik Rupel is the half-owner of a house of just under 159 square metres and an adjoining plot of 938 square metres in Mislinja. Since 2008, the property has been encumbered by a mortgage of €220,000 due to a loan from Unicredit Bank.
In the Prime Minister’s family
PM Robert Golob has also reported on the changes in his assets. As previously revealed in the media, he has announced the sale of just under 11,000 square meters of land. However, land registry data show that Golob’s right to prohibit alienation or encumbrance of property is no longer registered on the 201 square metre house in Kromberk and the nearly 3,400 square metres of land belonging to his ex-wife.
Last October, Golob also became the sole shareholder of Star Solar, an electricity generation company previously owned by his now ex-wife. Oštro has obtained a copy of the agreement on the division of the common property under which he became the sole owner. In mid-July last year, Golob’s daughter Luna Golob, not yet 20 years of age, became a director of Star Solar.
On 29 December, the final working day of last year, Star Solar received a new director – Miran Klanjšček, the husband of MP Mirjam Bon Klanjšček, a long-time political companion of Golob. She first stood as a candidate on his local list for the Nova Gorica City Council in 2006, and was a city councilor on that list from 2018 to 2022. Between 2013 and 2018, she was also an MP of the Positive Slovenia and SAB parties.
The CPC has confirmed that a preliminary examination procedure is underway regarding the ownership of Star Solar. The case will be examined in light of any suspected breaches of the Integrity and Prevention of Corruption Act, which defines institutes such as restrictions on business, conflicts of interest, incompatibility of functions and integrity: “We cannot give any more information at this stage of the procedure”, they stated.
Since at least 2018, Star Solar has generated the majority of its revenues from Borzen, the state-owned electricity market operator. In 2022 for example, the company’s total revenues amounted to just over €256,000, of which €180,000 came from Borzen. As N1 reported in January, these were operating subsidies for renewable electricity generation.
When the Asset Detector was first published in May last year, Golob’s office also explained that the Prime Minister had savings in the bank and investments in mutual funds, and that he owned a vehicle. The CPC’s asset data show that he has acquired movable property in the last year as well as new financial liabilities.
Due to the scarcity of the information, it is unclear what movable property and how much additional debt.
With the publication of the data on the assets of state secretaries, Oštro concludes the second phase of the Asset Detector project, conducted simultaneously by sister investigative journalism centers in Slovenia and Croatia. The data is not complete and comprehensive, as Oštro journalists only had access to publicly available sources and information obtained through their journalistic work. Prior to the publication of the project, all the state secretaries were briefed in detail on the data collected on their assets.
The next publication of data on the third group of officials will take place in a few months’ time. All data already published will be updated periodically by the journalists.
The Oštro team collects data on the assets of political officials exclusively using methods of investigative and data journalism. If you have knowledge on the assets of officials that have not been entered into the database yet, you can help us by sending information to our email address detektorpremozenja@ostro.si and the editorial will verify it. If the information turns out to be credible, the assets will be entered into our database.
In the collection of data on the assets of political officials, Oštro was assisted by: Antonio Baquero (OCCRP), Amra Džonlić, and Dragana Pećo (OCCRP ID).
Data verification: Nina Rozman, Žana Erznožnik, Samo Demšar, Matej Zwitter