Opposition Calls for Action Like ‘Maestro’ Due to Crime in Commodity Reserves

In the parliamentary debate on the report regarding the state and management of commodity reserves in the past year, the opposition asserted that due to suspicions of crime in the Commodity Reserves, an action similar to ‘Index’ and ‘Maestro’ needs to be conducted, and raised the issue of the write-off of million-dollar debts owed by companies that did business with the Commodity Reserves and went bankrupt.

Zlatko Koračević (HNS Club) stated that the report is particularly interesting due to numerous scandals and possible crimes in the Commodity Reserves. He mentioned that after last year’s debate on the report regarding the Commodity Reserves, when, as he said, it was established that ‘at least one billion kuna of Croatian taxpayers’ money was gifted from the commodity reserves to various private companies’, it was expected that the State Attorney’s Office would clarify the situation, as was done in the actions ‘Index’ and ‘Maestro’. On behalf of the Club, he proposed that the action be named ‘donation’.

‘HNS Club does not want to believe that one billion kuna has gone to waste, and that this is considered a minor offense,’ Koračević said, questioning who is interested in sweeping this under the rug. He asserted that in the past four years, about 400 million kuna of uncollected receivables from companies that went bankrupt have been written off. To this, he added, 332 million kuna that were converted into ownership shares. ‘The fact is that state commodity reserves can be plundered with impunity, and that no one responsible has to account for their operations,’ Koračević stated. ‘This is the result of catastrophic management of commodity reserves in previous years, especially before 2000,’ Koračević said.

Frano Matušić (HDZ) stated that Koračević cannot speak in generalities and urged him to inform the state attorney if he knows anything specific so that the facts can be established because, he emphasizes, ‘no one can go unpunished for such actions.’ His party colleague Krunoslav Markovinović responded to Koračević that the Commodity Reserves in 2004 and 2005 filed many lawsuits ‘and extracted the maximum from companies in bankruptcy’.

Independent representative Dragutin Lesar also warned about the write-off of receivables, stating that it was done in such a way that ‘a company ‘Tuti-fruti’ is established which, when it buys goods from the Commodity Reserves, goes bankrupt.’ ‘And such ‘tuti-frutis’, dead rabbits, amounted to a total of half a billion kuna,’ said Lesar.

Krešo Filipović (HDZ Club) asserted that there are no scandals in the Commodity Reserves and that they are capable of fulfilling any task set before them by the Government. ‘Revenues are 150 percent higher than in 2006 or nominally by 148.14 million kuna,’ said Filipović. Zdravko Kelić (HSS Club) stated that the report shows that the main feature of the Commodity Reserves’ operations is the increase in revenue from operations and the sale of non-financial assets, the reduction of long-term debts, and expenses in operations.

State Secretary in the Ministry of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship Miljenko Pavlaković initially stated that total revenues and receipts in the past year amounted to slightly more than 246.5 million kuna, while expenses and expenditures were slightly higher than 211.7 million. From this, it can be seen that the actual surplus of revenues and receipts is slightly more than 34.8 million kuna ‘which, with surpluses from previous years, amounts to about 85.3 million kuna.’ The Parliament continues to discuss the report on the implementation of the national strategy and action plan for combating drug abuse for the past year. (Hina)