The Court of Audit performed the audit of managing the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (hereinafter referred to as: RRP) in the period from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2024. The auditees were the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry of Finance and the Recovery and Resiliency Office.
The RRP of the Republic of Slovenia was adopted in 2021 and included 34 reforms and 52 investments, all referring to 209 milestones and targets. The value of the RRP amounted to EUR 2.5 billion, of which EUR 1.8 billion of grants. The Republic of Slovenia has been facing with delays in the implementation of the RRP already since 2022. In October 2023, the RRP was changed for several reasons.
The Court of Audit established during the audit that the auditees failed to sufficiently examine and to adequately consider the feasibility of the measures included in the RRP within acceptable timeframe. As assessed by the Court of Audit, even the RRP implementation structure was established late and not completely. Moreover, responsibility for the implementation of the RRP as a whole was not defined by the Decree on the implementation of Recovery and Resilience Facility. When setting up internal control systems, there were delays already in 2021. The change of the Government and reorganisation of the ministries in 2022 additionally increased the risk of delays. Responsible entities for setting up the information system for the RRP implementation were the Ministry of Finance and the Recovery and Resiliency Office. The Court of Audit identified some weaknesses of the information system and found possible options to improve the information system. Competent authorities must report on the RRP implementation to the information system. Regular reporting on the RRP implementation mostly commenced only in 2023 and was insufficient. However, the Recovery and Resiliency Office lacks levers for taking action in case of delays or false reports, since the Decree on the implementation of Recovery and Resilience Facility does not lay down sanctions if competent authorities fail to report on time.
For the purpose of reporting to the Government on the implementation of the RRP as a whole, the Recovery and Resiliency Office in the period from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2024 prepared 3 regular reports before submitting payment request to the European Commission and 11 exceptional reports in the cases of significant deviations in the RRP implementation from the initially planned performance. The form and content of exceptional reports were left to the discretion of the Recovery and Resiliency Office. Regular reports before the submission of the 2nd and the 3rd payment request provided only the most basic overview of the RRP implementation. Comparison among the reports was not possible, additionally, they did not allow for efficient monitoring and steering of the RRP implementation. According to the assessment of the Court of Audit, the response from the Government to the reports on significant deviations in the RRP implementation was not delivered on time and was not sufficient.
On the basis of the Court of Audit’s findings, the Government, the Ministry of Finance and the Recovery and Resiliency Office implemented corrective measures already during the audit to improve their operations. In April 2025, the Government improved the manner of monitoring the RRP implementation at the highest level, namely by requiring from the Recovery and Resiliency Office to monthly report on the progress in the RRP implementation. Furthermore, the Ministry of Finance proposed legal bases to facilitate budget procedures and to remove certain administrative obstacles. In 2024 and 2025, the Recovery and Resiliency Office rectified technical mistakes in the information system called "Program dela" (Program of Work) and upgraded it as to provide better insight into the data about the milestones and the targets. Additionally, the Recovery and Resiliency Office introduced a unified reporting structure and improved reporting on reaching the milestones and the targets and reinforced reporting control systems, as well as strengthened controls by the competent authorities.
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