Avdagič (first from the left) participated in the presentation of an autonomous delivery vehicle. Photo: Tomaž Skala
The company of the Ljubljana city councilman cooperates with the municipality – and what does the KPK say about it?
Zoran Janković’s List city councilor Daniel Avdagič is also the director of AV Living Lab. It was in his directorial capacity that he recently appeared at presentations of projects related to the City of Ljubljana. As he said, his company did not receive any money for these projects.
The company AV Living Lab deals with advanced technologies, data and the development of revolutionary solutions for the future of mobility. Its director, Daniel Avdagičwas also elected to the city council on Zoran Jankovič’s List, and he is also a member of the Commission for International Relations and the Committee for Economic Public Services and Transport.
In a speech before the last local elections in 2022, he informed the voters that in the previous mandate he focused on smart city mobility solutions, young people and start-up companies. “In the future, I will focus on sustainability, green technologies and digitization,” he announced.
In the last period, we could also see him in the public eye with two major projects related to the Municipality of Ljubljana (MOL). The first is the Digital Driving Academy project, which was presented by Ljubljana Passenger Transport (LPP) last September. It is a driving simulator that should help improve drivers’ skills and provide additional learning in a safe environment. Avdagič appeared at the presentation of the driving simulator as a representative of the company AV Living Lab, which is supposed to provide this technology for LPP.
Less than a week ago, Avdagič took part in the presentation of another project, worth 8.9 million euros: Pošta Slovenije, in cooperation with the municipality, presented the first autonomous vehicle, which in the future could deliver packages around the city center. At the presentation, Avdagič explained to the journalists that his company had already tested the vehicle in Ljubljana’s BTC before the first test in the city center.
“I do everything voluntarily”
Daniel Avdagič explained to Dnevnik’s questions about a potential conflict of interest that his company had indeed entered into a development and research partnership with LPP last year. “LPP got free technology for its driving academy, and our company got feedback and references for international markets. We always use Slovenia as a sandbox, as an area where we test the best technologies. With this, LPP gets the latest technology at its disposal, which otherwise costs a lot of money,” he said.
He emphasized that it was similar in the project with Pošta Slovenije, where they did not receive the funds from the MOL. “We were paid by the European Commission, the European Trace project. Since I am a member of the city council, I am careful not to be in a conflict of interest,” he added.
In such cases, he does not consider cooperation with MOL to be controversial, as he does everything voluntarily. “I’m not in any way against it, because we don’t issue financial bills and we don’t do anything at the expense of taxpayers. I will always advocate for the development of Ljubljana. The driving simulator was also financed from our own funds,” he added.
He may not do business with MOL
We checked with the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (KPK) whether the cooperation of a city councilor with the municipality, when acting in the role of a company director, could be in any way controversial. “The company AV Living Lab was registered by the Municipality of Ljubljana as a company subject to business restrictions in accordance with the Act on Integrity and Prevention of Corruption. In practice, this means that MOL may not order goods, services or construction from this company in accordance with public procurement procedures, nor may it grant concessions and enter into other forms of public-private partnership and grant it special or exclusive rights.”
However, these restrictions do not apply to municipal public institutions or public companies, KPK warns: “AV Living Lab can therefore do business with LPP.” We would like to remind you that this type of business must not constitute a bypass of the established restrictions on business with the municipality. So that business with a public institution or a public company would take place because the company is not allowed to do business with the municipality,” they reminded.
According to data from the Erar database, Avdagič’s company has received a good 122,000 euros from public funds in the last eight years, as long as he sits on the city council: the most, almost 47 thousand, from the Public Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for the Promotion of Investments, Entrepreneurship and Internationalization.
Councilor Avdagič, at least when it comes to city council meetings, is much less active than director Avdagič. In neither of his two mandates did he ask any question or initiative, but in all cases when he was present, he voted the same as the councilor group of Zoran Janković’s List.
