STA, 16 October 2019 - After a number of revelations showing that the Ljubljana and Maribor universities paid out millions of euros to professors in addition to their salaries, the commercial broadcaster POP TV reported about internal audits at Ljubljana University showing that nearly EUR 12 million had been paid to employees in addition to salaries in only three years.
Between 2016 and 2018, 200 individuals received EUR 11.8 million stemming from commercial projects in addition to their salaries. The funds were paid out on the bases of freelance contracts.
The audits have taken issue with the payments, according to POP TV, raising the issue of a conflict of interest, unfair competition and a lack of clarity about whether the work that was paid extra had indeed been performed outside regular work hours.
POP TV ran a list of 15 names who received more than EUR 100,000 each through various freelance contracts between 2016 and 2018. Moreover, another 210 employees received more than EUR 30,000 each in additional payments in this period.
The highest sums had been paid out at the faculties for electrical engineering, medicine, engineering, construction and administration.
Topping the list of the highest earners is regular professor Janko Drnovšek, the head of the robotics department at the Electrical Engineering Faculty, who also heads a metrology and quality lab.
In three years, he received EUR 197,000 in payments in addition to his annual salary of EUR 60,000 gross. He told POP TV that he had performed all of his work at the faculty for the past 35 years.
The work he does on commercial projects does not encroach on his teaching job, he said. "It's the opposite. Becoming a regular professor takes many, many years of sacrifices. It encroaches on your family life," he said.
The list of 15 highest earners includes seven who work at the Faculty of Medicine. Its Dean Igor Švab told the broadcaster that only a small fraction of the money the faculty makes with its commercial activities is spent to reward the people who work there.
The Faculty of Medicine makes the most of all faculties from commercial projects. Commercial funds account for EUR 19 million of its EUR 54 million budget.
