Hello on behalf of the Administration for Civil
Protection and Disaster Relief. During today's press conference,
we'd like to present the repayment process
for emergency expenses incurred by municipalities
and disaster response teams
during the August floods
and the mudslides that followed
during the activated national emergency plan
between August 4 and August 31
on a nationwide level.
The storms we've seen over the summer
caused tremendous damage.
During the July thunderstorms with hail
and the August floods with mudslides,
almost 200 municipalities were affected.
For the first time in history, the government has set aside
such significant funds, more than €120 million,
to repay the expenses incurred by the municipalities
and the responders. This had never happened
in the history of independent Slovenia.
These repayments of emergency expenses
include funds incurred
during the emergency response of the municipalities
and the disaster response teams.
We're talking about the Civil Defense teams,
as well as firefighters, and mountain, cave,
and underwater rescuers.
The emergency response system also includes scouts,
divers, and first responders.
We're not talking about expenses incurred by the armed forces,
police, or other professional units that took part
in the emergency response.
In August, Slovenia identified
and approved funds for 138 municipalities
that were the hardest hit and signed up
to have these expenses repaid
in the total amount of about €95 million.
These are justified expenses incurred by the affected
municipalities during the acquisition of fuel,
as well as the repair and replacement of damaged items
in those municipalities,
the costs of temporary accommodation
for evacuated permanent or temporary residents
on the territory of various municipalities,
the costs of restoring the affected areas
to ensure basic living conditions,
including emergency procedures on roads, waterworks,
sewage systems, and other utilities,
the renting of equipment, such as chemical toilets,
mobile laundromats, and the like,
disinfectants, various removals of alluvium
and other contaminated material,
disposal of waste in this area,
as well as the renting of construction equipment,
the use of construction material and other items needed
to ensure basic living conditions.
The municipalities will also be compensated for the expenses
incurred when repairing streams in August, removing alluvium,
and setting up temporary bridges and other construction,
as well as to ensure preventative infrastructure,
such as sampling an analyses,
repair projects, and expert opinions about the stability
of buildings and landslides in the area.
The sum of these expenses was about €95 million.
Based on a decision by the government,
the Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief
received funds on September 28,
and together with municipalities
that had an October 6 deadline
to submit their requests along with proofs of having incurred
emergency expenses, 132 municipalities
had successful submissions.
This means that six municipalities did not submit their requests,
but as of today, three additional municipalities submitted
their requests, which means that 135 out of 138 municipalities
have submitted proposals along with proofs
of having used these funds.
It should be said that about two thirds of the municipalities
submitted their requests on the final day,
October 6 or late on October 5.
This is why the submissions were only examined
starting on Monday, October 9.
Despite this, we managed to review the total amount
of requests submitted by the municipalities.
We said that the Government estimated
we can pay back €95 million
and the municipalities have asked for €73 million until today
which is a lot less than what we predicted.
We expect this sum to rise in the future.
We have been in constant contact with the municipalities,
but 20% of the costs
have not been proven yet by the local communities
and have not been forwarded to the Administration for Disaster Relief.
The first application we processed
was the application from Prevalje which we received on 4th October
and was signed by the mayor. After we had reviewed it,
we initiated the payment process in one day
and yesterday, they received
€5.5 million.
Tomorrow, we will pay €5 million to Črna na Koroškem
and by the end of the week, Podvelka and Ribnica will get the funds.
In the first eight days after receiving the applications,
we will pay more than €10 million. I want to emphasize
that the Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief
worked closely with the municipalities
for the first three days and the rest of the time
is needed to transfer the money,
so that the municipalities get it. This is why I mentioned eight days
is the deadline for the payment.
I can say that yesterday and today,
we have approved more than 60 applications
which means half of the municipalities could get the money
by the end of the week or at the beginning of the next.
We are talking about more than 30 million, which means
that by now, we approved
€40 million to pay by the end of the week or during next week.
This is more than half of the sum
the municipalities applied for. It is our goal
to process all the applications by the end of the week.
First, we will pay for the costs where there is no doubt,
we will pay back the costs the municipalities actually had.
The municipalities that provided all the documents,
the bills, order forms, delivery notes and bills of lading,
will get the money by the deadline.
The applications where there are questions
will be put aside for now
and solved in the end. It is our main goal
to pay as much as possible for the biggest costs
to provide the liquidity to the municipalities,
so that they can pay their contractors
that need to pay taxes and wages.
This way, the contractors and local communities
will not have financial problems.
At this press conference,
I want to thank the municipalities for their cooperation,
so that we could pay for the biggest costs first
and wait with those where we need more arguments
whether they are justifiable or not.
I also want to thank my coworkers
that have been working really hard in the past months
to ensure
that we can continue our work without delays
when we are working with clients or solving other issues.
I want to say a few words about payments
to the Civil Protection. The Government provided
€11 million for the units
that had the biggest expenses.
The Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief
prepared contracts for the Fire Brigades Association,
the Association of Professional Firefighters, Ljubljana Fire Brigade,
the Red Cross, the Mountain Rescue Service, the Cave Rescue Service,
the Water Rescue Service and the Scout Organization.
We signed the contracts and sent them to the organizations.
Now, they have to check the documents
that prove they are entitled to the funds.
We already sent them some money,
so they can continue their work. All their units
will depend on their work and cooperation with the organizations
to get the money. We hope this will go
as successfully as in the case of last year's compensations
for the Karst fire
or this year's storms, which happened in May,
and certain financial funds were repaid.
To summarise,
we think the payouts are going smoothly.
There is a very specific method of payment
of actual eligible costs based on the documents,
which means this system is slightly different from the one
the Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning
will implement in the future in the case of rehabilitation costs,
because municipalities will receive advanced funds
based on a contract, and will later have to
justify spending these funds with authentic documents,
to put it simply, invoices and all other procedures.
As far as intervention costs,
we are already reviewing the actual costs and actual documents,
which means that there will be no further procedures
and the funds are transferred immediately after eligibility.
Despite this being a final procedure,
all matters have already taken place
within fourteen days of the money transfer
to the Administration for Civil Protection account
and of the individual claims by municipalities
in the previous week.
That's all, now for the questions.
Thank you, Director-General.
Now I invite you, dear media, to raise your hand
and introduce yourself when you have the floor.
I see a hand. Staša Lozar, go ahead.
Can you hear me? Hello, from Pop TV.
We can hear you. -Thank you.
I am now on the ground.
The mayors of Komenda and the municipalities around Ljubljana
welcome these compensations and are waiting to get them.
But I'm still interested, because I also spoke to the people,
when will you actually give money to the people?
Next week, a cold spell is coming,
the people are waiting.
The municipalities provided money from some accounts,
but can you tell the people
when they will get the money registered in the AJDA system?
Since you mentioned the AJDA system,
we are talking about a different part of resources.
The Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief
is responsible solely for reimbursement of intervention costs
to local communities or protection and rescue units,
therefore we are very happy
that the response of municipalities on the ground is positive.
The municipalities will receive the money very quickly,
this collaboration is effective.
The AJDA system deals with direct damage,
assessed by the municipal commissions,
which is also registered in the system.
I need to point out that this system according to the new intervention law
is compatible with prepayments
carried out by the Ministry of Natural Resources
based on a preliminary damage assessment.
They are not waiting for the AJDA system.
The system has already been verified
by the Government when it approved
a little over one billion euros costs of direct damage
as a preliminary estimate.
A preliminary rehabilitation program was accepted.
As far as we know, the funds are already in the account
of the Ministry of Natural Resources,
which will distribute the money among the local communities.
These will then distribute it further
in accordance with the law and their jurisdiction.
It is very difficult for me to comment on when this money
will be in the accounts of the municipalities,
given that this is the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Thank you. Any other questions?
Staša Lozar, go ahead.
I'm sorry,
but didn't you make them list the damage on agricultural land again?
Or did I misunderstand them?
The agricultural land is treated twice.
The AJDA system deals with the agricultural holdings
or the farms themselves and the infrastructure,
while for the crops, supplies and so on,
a special decision needs to be issued
and it is implemented accordingly
within the competence of services in the field of agriculture.
This is usually financed as compensation for the costs
of the damage caused in agriculture
through the Ministry of Agriculture.
If we are talking about costs due to floods
and everything else in agriculture production,
this process will take place through the Ministry of Agriculture
and the Government for the final evaluation
and the process of compensations itself.
Very often in the past, a special intervention law was used
in case of major damage. These procedures are ongoing.
We are talking about two things.
AJDA is a direct census of damage to buildings and real estate,
but when it comes to agricultural production,
there is a special assessment procedure,
where actual loss is checked,
so some matters will have to wait to the end of the season,
so that it will be determined what the losses were
due to the direct impact of flooding.
Thank you. Any other questions?
If not, thank you for being here.
Thank you.