Hypocrisy While assuring everyone of the transparency of the state budget, the Minister of Finance withholds information about budget revenues from concession and mining fees.
Taxpayers have a legal right to know why so little revenue and profits from the extraction of oil, natural gas, and the exploitation of other national wealth in Croatia flow into the state budget, while the ‘lion’s share’ goes to the dividends of concessionaires. This is also stated in the second edition of the book ‘Budget Guide for Citizens’ (publishers: Institute of Public Finance and Friedrich Ebert Foundation) promoted last week.
However, on the same day that the second edition of the book ‘Budget Guide for Citizens’ was presented to journalists (on Tuesday, March 2, 2010), Ivan Šuker, the Minister of Finance, signed a decision in which, referring to Article 11 of the Regulation on the Register of Concessions (NN 9/09), he withholds data on the exact total amounts of budget revenues from concession and mining fees.
Invisible Data At the promotion of the book ‘Budget Guide for Citizens’, I asked if the authors could help me obtain and publish data on the exact amounts of budget revenues from concession fees despite the withholding. The first to respond was Zdravko Marić, State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, who said he was aware of the withholding of information on the exact amounts of concession and mining fees, but he was not familiar with the details, so he would check what it was about. After State Secretary Marić, Katarina Ott, director of the Institute of Public Finance, assured those present that ‘surely somewhere on the website of the Ministry of Finance, among the multitude of data, there can be found data on the exact amounts of concession and mining fees.’
Usurpation of Public Goods
Great (Illegal) Enrichment
One of the most important sources of wealth of dubious legality in the past 20 years in Croatia is the usurpation of public goods. It all started with the usurpation of maritime property and so-called tourist land. We still encounter the consequences of the usurpation of maritime property today when the Government pays compensation to shipyards for ‘registering maritime property’. Why does public prosecutor Mladen Bajić not ask the Government how maritime property could be included in the core capital of shipyards when it has been legally prohibited all along? After maritime property and so-called tourist land, there followed usurpations of natural and mineral wealth, telecommunications infrastructure, the usurpation of electricity resources is being carried out, and the usurpation of forest areas is announced, etc.
I did not believe Dr. Ott that someone from the Ministry of Finance officials is putting data on the web ‘behind the back’ of Minister Šuker for which the minister claims in his Regulation that they ‘are not considered public’. I hereby invite Dr. Ott to show me on the website of the Ministry of Finance the exact amounts of budget revenues from concession and mining fees, as I would gladly analyze and publish them. As an explanation for Dr. Ott’s assurance that data on the exact amounts of concession and mining fees can be found on the website of the Ministry of Finance despite the contrary administrative acts of Minister Šuker, it should be reminded that the Institute of Public Finance, meanwhile privatized, has a well-paid collaboration with the Ministry of Finance for which it conducts numerous research and projects. It is a pity that the responsible persons from the Ministry of Finance usually only partially realize good projects of the Institute of Public Finance or do not realize them at all (research serves to make the Ministry appear more competent than it actually is).
Administrative Procedure Legally viewed, Minister Šuker, in withholding responses to inquiries about the exact amounts of budget revenues from concession and mining fees, refers to the Regulation on the so-called Register of Concessions (which is maintained by Fina), according to which the amounts of concession fees are not considered public. Firstly, this Regulation was signed by Minister Šuker himself. However, it is much more important that the Regulation, as a subordinate act, is subordinate to laws (a regulation cannot undermine a legal provision). Therefore, as a party in the administrative procedure, I ignore Šuker’s Regulation and insist on the application of the provisions of the Budget Act and the Act on the Right to Access Information, according to which all budget revenues are public, including revenues from concession and mining fees.
We invite entrepreneurs to present their problems. Following your writings, by pointing out the absurdities in individual cases, we will highlight the shortcomings of the system as a whole and thus support the readers of Lider as individuals in their unequal disputes with the cumbersome state administration. Contact:
e-mail: [email protected]
tel. 01/6333-524
address: Ivica Grčar, Lider,
Savska 41, 10144 Zagreb
