the prior consent of the minister responsible for finance. The rules are published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia. On this basis, the Ombudsman issued the Rules on the reimbursement of costs and remuneration of persons from organisations performing tasks or executing authorisations according to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.2 In December 2014,3 the Ombudsman published a new public procurement, no. 12.1-4/2014-1, for the selection of NGOs for cooperation in the implementation of duties and powers of the NPM for the 2015–2017 period, with the possibility of an extension for an additional year. Eight NGOs applied to the public procurement, i.e. Novi paradoks (NP), the Association for Developing Voluntary Work Novo mesto (Association), Humanitarno društvo Pravo za vse (Pravo za vse), Caritas Slovenia (Caritas), SKUP – Community of Private Institutes (SKUP), the Legal-Informational Centre for NGOs (PIC), the Peace Institute (MI) and the Slovenian Federation of Pensioners’ Associations (ZDUS). All bids were timely and met the criteria determined in the public procurement, and all were selected for cooperation with the Ombudsman in the implementation of duties and powers of the NPM. The Ombudsman also cooperated with representatives of these organisations in 2016 during the implementation of the duties and powers of the NPM. It was thus decided at the end of 2014 that a special NPM unit would be established in 2015, which will not discuss individual complaints, but only conduct visits and other NPM duties. In addition to the Deputy Ombudsman, Ivan Šelih, who is the head of the NPM, the unit in 2016 also included Robert Gačnik, (B.A. (criminal justice and security), specialist in criminal investigation, the Ombudsman’s adviser/councillor (responsible particularly for visiting prisons, police stations, aliens and asylum centres), mag. Jure Markič, the Ombudsman’s adviser/senior councillor, (B.A. (law)) (responsible for visiting social care institutions and psychiatric hospitals) and Lili Jazbec, the Ombudsman’s adviser/ councillor, professor of defectology for behavioural and personality disorders and institutional education science (responsible for visiting juvenile institutions and jointly responsible for social care institutions). Both of the Ombudsman’s activities (preventive, including NPM duties, and reactive, including the examination of individual complaints) were thus completely separated. The need for this separation is explicitly stipulated in Item 32 of the Guidelines on national preventive mechanisms (SPT)4 adopted in Geneva in November 2010, which determines that “where the body designated as the NPM performs other functions in addition to those under the Optional Protocol, its NPM functions should be located within a separate unit or department, with its own staff and budget”. Such division of the Ombudsman’s activities was also observed in 2016. We find that the decision to make this division of the Ombudsman’s activities was appropriate. The implementation of tasks and powers of the NPM is now much more organised and effective, which is also reflected in the number of visits to different locations (for example, we conducted 39 visits in the role of NPM in 2014, 67 in 2015, and as many as 80 in 2016). The improved organisation of work contributes to better preparation for individual visits, their execution and drafting of reports on visits. Due to the different distribution of work, an adviser on discussing individual complaints had to be replaced. Furthermore, more visits also incur higher costs (for cooperation with the selected NGOs and the execution of visits). The need to improve the participation of doctors/experts on individual NPM’s visits also requires more funds. 1.3. Activities of the NPM When implementing its duties and powers, the NPM’s visits (while conducting its annual programme of visits) all locations in the Republic of Slovenia where persons are deprived of their liberty, and inspects how such persons are treated, in order to strengthen their protection against torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or humiliating treatment or punishment. While observing suitable legal norms, the NPM makes recommendations to the relevant authorities to improve the conditions and treatment of people and prevent torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading 2  T  he Rules were published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 17/2008. The Rules were partly amended in 2011 (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 20/2011). 3  Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 92/2014 of 19 December 2014. 4  Available at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/OPCAT/Pages/NationalPreventiveMechanisms.aspx. 6 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE NPM IN 2016 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM UNDER THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT