‘Coning Engineering Appropriated All Money from Settlement with the Government’

At the beginning of this month, the Government made a decision to reach a settlement with the company Coning Engineering and pay a debt of 8 million kuna, but the company Zagorje-Tehnobeton warns that this settlement does not ensure payment to that company.

– As we have executed 50 percent of the work on the reconstruction and extension of the block Dorđićeva 4-Petrinjska, 18-Trg Nikole Šubića Zrinskog 7-8 as a collaborator and equal partner of Coning as the main contractor, all for the benefit of the Republic of Croatia, specifically the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, with this statement, the company Zagorje-Tehnobeton d.d. publicly demands from the Government of the Republic of Croatia 50 percent of the specified amount that legally belongs to them, as workers in this Varaždin company also need to be ensured their salaries, and therefore no discrepancies should be made towards anyone, and the Workers’ Council and the Union Branch Committee demand that part of the earned money be paid to the workers of Zagorje-Tehnobeton – states the company’s announcement.

This concerns a total debt of 16 million, for which a lawsuit has been initiated against the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, and Zagorje-Tehnobeton has the right to unpaid compensation amounting to 50 percent of the amount that will be determined as an undisputed amount of the Ministry’s debt to Coning Engineering.

Following such a decision by the Government, Zagorje-Tehnobeton submitted a request to the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (09.05.2013) and a letter to the State Attorney’s Office and the Ministry of Finance (16.05.2013) to ensure that through the settlement, half of the debt amount is directly paid to the company Zagorje-Tehnobeton, as there is a fear that due to the difficult situation in which Coning finds itself, the debt to the contractor will never be settled and the money will end up elsewhere.

They emphasize that in response to requests sent to state institutions, the company Zagorje-Tehnobeton has not received any response, all institutions have ignored them systematically, and proof of this is yesterday’s media announcement that Coning will use the settlement money to pay salaries to its workers.