Kosor blocked million-dollar contracts for Sanader’s friend

The private agency Fimi-medija, which came into the spotlight due to signing multi-million contracts with HAC, will no longer be able to operate as before. According to Jutarnji list, Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor has halted this company’s ability to do business with state-owned companies with which Fimi-medija has mostly operated until now, regularly without public tenders, generating million-euro revenues.

Fimi-medija is owned by Nevenka Jurak and, according to data from the court register, has been operating since 2001. The founder and director of the company is Nevenka Jurak, and the number of employees increased from one to eleven from 2004 to 2008. Although it is a small company and not particularly well-known in business circles, Fimi-medija has achieved high revenues over the years thanks to contracts with mostly state-owned companies. For example, according to business reports, in 2004 the company generated 200,000 euros in revenue, and the following year 1.2 million euros.

In contrast to 2006, when it had a revenue of 3 million euros, Nevenka Jurak’s company had as much as 7.3 million euros in revenue in 2007, concluding the previous year with 6.7 million euros in revenue. This means that the company generated 17 million euros in revenue in the last three years, or about 120 million kuna, of which a larger part, they say in HDZ, was generated from state-owned companies.

One of the more lucrative contracts that Fimi-medija signed was with HAC last year when the company signed two contracts worth around 12 million kuna for promotional spots related to the electronic toll collection system (ENC). This contract was signed without a public tender, but such tasks reportedly fall under the internal affairs of HAC, so according to the regulations, they are not obliged to conduct a tender.

Nevenka Jurak’s company was regularly engaged by HAC for organizing ceremonies during the opening of new road sections or the start of works. All these jobs were awarded to Fimi-medija without a tender, and HAC first engaged them on June 30, 2006, during the opening of the highway near Lipovac. On that occasion, Nevenka Jurak was supposed to design accompanying events for the opening, and director Krešo Dolenčić was also engaged.

Everything was done very lavishly, large tents were set up, and there were even horses with carriages. However, it is learned that the then Prime Minister Ivo Sanader did not like this kind of glamour, so director Dolenčić was ultimately dismissed. Before the opening of the Lipovac highway, HAC usually performed such jobs themselves at very low costs. However, after the Fimi-medija agency entered the story, the ‘circus’ around the opening of highways became commonplace.

According to stories from HAC, Nevenka Jurak is known as a very businesslike and pleasant woman to work with. They say she always managed to solve any problem if something got stuck in business. However, on the other hand, we learn that there were also calls from high political places to engage Fimi-medija for certain jobs.

This, however, is not unusual considering that Nevenka Jurak, according to insiders, is a very close friend of the director of the Customs Administration Mladen Barišić, former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, and Speaker of the Parliament Luka Bebić. Fimi-medija has also worked with other state-owned companies – HEP, Croatian Forests, Croatian Roads… They also worked with the Ministry of the Interior, primarily during the term of Ivica Kirin when they completed a job with TV spots about slow driving on highways. (www.jutarnji.hr)