Ljubljana - Business documents that the STA sent to the government on Thursday in a bid to resolve the months-long standoff over financing were returned to the agency on Friday, but the STA management rejected receipt of the package and the courier took it back to the seat of the government.

The STA quizzed the Government Communications Office (UKOM) about the move, but UKOM said it had still not received the documents.

The prime minister's office meanwhile sent a letter to the STA as the package with the documents was returned asking the STA management to send it to UKOM.

It said that UKOM "is a government body authorised to communicate with the STA".

"This was the same in all previous [government] terms while the legislation has meanwhile not changed, this is how it is now and will be in the future," the office said.

It added that "the prime minister's office was no intermediate post office which anyone could choose to use to avoid one's legal obligations".

The STA management sees the statement as a long-awaited reply to its question to which institution it should send the required document, although the prime minister's office did not attach a government decree or any other document to the letter to prove UKOM has been formally authorised to act on behalf of the state.

Replaying to the prime ministers's letter, STA director Bojan Veselinovič proposed that the prime minister's office forward the documents to UKOM.

Legal expert Rajko Pirnat told the STA that by sending the documents to the prime minister, the management had acted in line with the law on the government, under which the prime minister represents the government.

The government has claimed for months that the reason why STA financing has been suspended has been the agency's failure to deliver documents based on which it would be possible to determine fair financing of the public service.

The STA waited to get a formal request from the government as the sole shareholder in accordance with corporate law. Since it has not received any, it decided yesterday to send the documents despite the lack of the formal request so that financing may resume, as the company is running out of money.

The STA management has all along argued that corporate law rules do not permit it to send the documents to UKOM as the custodian of the public service agreement, because it does not have formal authorisation from the government. This is why the documents were sent to the government secretariat general instead.