The Leadership of the Holding Must Leave After the Elections

Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić stated yesterday that the leadership of Zagreb Holding must leave after the local elections because they have ‘driven (the Holding) to the beggar’s stick’, but that he will not dismiss them; the citizens will do that.

– It is about saving two and a half billion kuna that they have swallowed and the long-term obligations they have created through their incompetence, and this will be resolved after the elections. Until then, I will have to ensure that the service to citizens is not called into question, and that is my only obligation – emphasized Bandić, responding to journalists’ inquiries about changes to the Statute of Zagreb Holding and whether he intends to take over the management of the Holding before the elections. He was responding to journalists during a visit to the Faculty of Agriculture.

He emphasized that elections must be held first and that the situation in the Holding should be resolved based on the election results.

– Those who took responsibility for the Holding almost four years ago – the City Assembly – in staffing the management, directors of subsidiaries, took responsibility for the supervisory board and the assembly of the Holding, and they will provide agreements on these issues –  he said.

The mayor has neither the moral nor any right to intervene there three months before the elections when he has no ability to supervise what is happening there; I can only say that eight months ago I tried to assess the situation through an independent audit, as I have no other way, but access to the Holding was denied to it, as well as to the City Control Office, said Bandić.

Commenting on the strong reactions to the introduction of another taxi service concessionaire to the market on March 1, Bandić said that the most successful will survive, that there are no more monopolies, and that this is an inevitability of market competition.

The goal of the city administration and the mayor is to have the highest quality and cheapest public transport, Bandić explained, emphasizing that he had no legal basis to refuse those who meet the conditions for a license.

He stated that he has submitted a proposal to the City Assembly to increase the number of taxi drivers by about 150. As long as there is interest in concessions, it means that one can survive from it, and the market will determine how many taxi drivers there will be, said Bandić.