Audits reveal new tens of millions of holes left by the Pigeon government.

A recent audit has revealed new financial gaps left behind by the previous government, amounting to over ten million euros, according to reports. The findings focus on the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, which underwent a major reorganisation under the new leadership. This restructuring included a reduction in organisational units by 36.8%, a halving of the number of directorates, and a significant rationalisation of the management structure. The number of ministers was cut from three to one, state secretaries decreased from seven to three, and directors of directorates were reduced from six to three. These changes have led to annual savings of approximately 1.21 million euros solely in salaries for the managerial staff. The new leadership inherited a significantly larger workforce, 102 more employees than in 2022, bringing the total from 437 to 538, an increase of 23.11%. However, by June 15, only 17% of the planned EU funds had been utilised in the current budget year. The audit identified potential savings of around 8.5 million euros across individual items. At the same time, additional needs were discovered, amounting to nearly 19.9 million euros, primarily for the restoration of municipal infrastructure after natural disasters and the start of the closure of the Velenje Coal Mine. The net estimated gap thus amounts to approximately 11.6 million euros. Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning Polona Rifelj, along with acting director of the Water Directorate Roman Kramer, presented the first comprehensive review of the ministry's organisational, financial, staffing, and project status upon assuming office. They also reviewed the implementation of projects outlined in the Recovery and Resilience Plan related to water issues. The ministry, which combines areas such as environment, nature, climate, space, construction, housing, water, and recovery from natural disasters, covers interconnected topics directly affecting quality of life, municipal development, economic growth, and national security. The initial assessment highlighted two main points. On one hand, the reorganisation has already reduced the number of organisational units and management levels, creating conditions for faster decision-making. On the other hand, the new leadership inherited financial gaps, rising costs in certain categories, a significantly higher number of employees, bottlenecks in accessing European funds, and several complex legal procedures. The reorganisation enabled the consolidation or harmonisation of common services and reduced the number of internal organisational units performing similar tasks. The achieved rationalisation resulted not from reducing the scope of responsibilities, but mainly from eliminating redundancies in the organisational structure and improving the efficiency of support processes. The reorganisation of the ministry brought together tasks previously scattered among three ministries and one government service into a unified system of governance and decision-making. In addition to the 36.8% reduction in the number of organisational units and a 50% decrease in the number of directorates, it also significantly rationalised the management structure. The number of ministers was reduced from three to one, state secretaries from seven to three, and directors of directorates from six to three. Financially, this means annual savings of 1.21 million euros just in salaries for the managerial staff. By doing so, duplicate management functions existing in multiple ministries and the government service were eliminated, and tasks are carried out through a substantially simplified administrative structure. The number of employees on ministerial trust has also decreased. It is crucial to understand that this does not represent a reduction in the scope of tasks, but rather the elimination of redundancies caused by separate cabinets, secretariats, and support services. The first effects of the reorganisation include clearer political and administrative responsibility, now one ministry instead of several parallel structures, shorter decision-making paths and less intermediate inter-regional coordination, merging professional knowledge, harmonising financial, personnel, legal, information, and other support processes, better oversight of projects, contracts, information systems, business premises, basic resources, and vehicle fleets, laying the groundwork for long-term planning.