Original article (in Slovenian) was published on 25/11/2022
Under the proposed amendments to the act, the RTV Slovenija council and the Court of Audit would conduct oversight of RTV Slovenija.
“The new law abolishes oversight of financial operations,” Janez Sustersic, an economist and former finance minister, stated in a subheading of his column on the portal Siol when he was naming the reasons why to vote against the law. He goes on to say that financial oversight is currently conducted by the broadcaster’s supervisory board, whereas under the amended law nobody will have the power to review compliance with the operations of public broadcaster RTV Slovenija.
The column about arguments against amendments to the RTV Slovenija Act, which the voters will vote on this Sunday, was also picked up by the portals Domovina and Demokracija, which are close to some of the organizers of the referendum campaign.
Under the existing act, oversight of the compliance of RTV Slovenija’s operations is in the purview of the supervisory board, which has 11 members. Five are appointed by the National Assembly, four by the Government, and two are directly elected by the employees of RTV Slovenija.
The National Assembly passed on 14 July amendments to the act under which the supervisory board will be abolished, and its powers transferred to the RTV Slovenija council and financial board. The financial board will produce preliminary opinions and proposals and submit them for confirmation to the financial board, for example, the draft financial plan, proposal for spending any surplus of revenue, and the appointment of an authorized auditor. It would have five members who have at least ten years of experience in finance.
The members would be appointed by the RTV Slovenija council, which would replace the current program council and take over some of the powers of the current supervisory board, for example, decisions on proposals by the financial board and oversight of operations.
The council would have 17 members, twelve fewer than the current 29-member program council, of which the National Assembly currently appoints 21. Under the amendments, six members would be appointed by the employees and the rest by the national communities and various organizations, including the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Human Rights Ombudsman.
Moreover, the amendments explicitly stipulate that the operations of RTV Slovenija will be audited by the Court of Audit, which is competent under the Court of Audit Act to do so. It has so far audited RTV Slovenija six times, most recently in 2018, when it audited its commercial activities.
Šušteršič’s claim that the new act no longer gives anyone the authority to supervise compliance with RTV Slovenija’s operations elicited on Tuesday a response from the Legal Network for the Protection of Democracy, an initiative that co-authored the new legislation. They say the current oversight of RTV Slovenija financial operations is inadequate since the members of the supervisory board are appointed by the ruling parties, and they are not required by law to have financial experience. They stressed that the oversight of operations determined by the amended act includes oversight of compliance.
Responding to the findings of Razkrinkavanje.si, Sustersic explained that the new act abolishes financial oversight because it entrusts it to the members of the RTV Slovenija council, who are not required to have appropriate competencies. Meanwhile, the financial board would not have the power to take independent decisions in the oversight procedure.
He warned that oversight by the Court of Audit is nothing new since the court already has this power. Moreover, oversight by the Court of Audit does not in itself mean oversight will be effective since the court decides independently which audits it will perform, and its audits do not have direct legal consequences. “Periodic Court of Audit audits can therefore in no way replace regular oversight by the supervisory board, which is abolished by the new act.”
However, the existing act does not stipulate that members of the supervisory board must have special competencies, whereas the amendments determine that members of the financial board, which will report to the RTV Slovenija council, must have at least ten years of experience in finance and a special certificate required for supervisory board members. Furthermore, the financial board will propose to the council the appointment of an authorized auditor in accordance with the Auditing Act.
Mihael Sustarsic, the editor-in-chief of Siol, told Razkrinkavanje.si that the column contains personal views of the author which were not editorially changed given the nature of opinion pieces. He added, however, that the author presented some claims as if they were facts and should have additionally substantiated his claims, but noted that the author is convinced of the veracity of these claims.
The editor-in-chief noted that the reaction by the Legal Network for the Protection of Democracy to Sustersic’s column had been published on Siol. According to him, the readers were thus able to get acquainted with various relevant viewpoints and decide on the credibility thereof.
The claim that the amendments to the RTV Slovenija act eliminate oversight of the financial operations of the public broadcaster is false.