The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) are conducting house searches at five locations in connection with the management of the EUR 1.3bn project for the construction of a new generator at the Šoštanj coal-fired power plant (TEŠ), including at the home of the former TEŠ director Uroš Rotnik.

NBI investigators and criminal police from the Celje and Novo mesto police administrations are looking for evidence on suspicion of several acts of corporate crime, according to a press release from the police.

Several individuals have been apprehended on suspicion of defrauding a company from the area of Šoštanj of several million euros for the benefit of a firm from the area of Ljubljana, the release said.

The searches are being conducted in the areas of the Ljubljana and Celje police administrations.

Rotnik, who was sacked as TEŠ boss in November 2010 over alleged mismanagement of the project to construct generator 6 (TEŠ6), confirmed for the STA that crime investigators were searching his home in connection with the project.

Rotnik left for Bosnia early on Tuesday but has in the meantime turned back home.

According to the business daily Finance, the searches are also being conducted at the former manager of TEŠ6 Bojan Brešar and the home of Peter Kotar from CEE, the company that the paper says has so far secured around EUR 2m worth of contracts in the project.

The project of the new generator has been raising controversy from the start, for one thing because its costs have ballooned from an initial estimate of EUR 600m to EUR 1.3bn.