It is unfortunate when a tram escapes right in front of you, even worse when a bus to Split zooms by, and a true disaster when you miss a flight to Doha where a wealthy business partner is waiting. But how do you categorize a delay of – four years? This is the delay that Member of Parliament Gordan Maras is currently experiencing during his entire term. Recently, he submitted the SDP’s Proposal for the Law on the Croatian Chamber of Economy into legislative procedure, which stipulates that membership in HGK should be voluntary. To be fair, he advocated for this when he was the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Crafts in Milanović’s government. However, Maras and the SDP failed to legalize the mantra of voluntary membership while they were in power, and during that era, HDZ member Luka Burilović was elected as the head of HGK, competing against Damir Kuštrak. Kuštrak was the deputy of Račan’s Minister of Finance Crkvenac, was a member of the Management Board of Agrokor at that time, and today sits on the Supervisory Board of that company making headlines. There’s more. Maras has been at least four years late with Agrokor as well. Today, he rightly demands an investigative committee regarding that company, rightly complains about lex Agrokor, and rightly laments the fate of suppliers.
Record Delay of Four Years: Late Maras Arrives at HGK and Agrokor
>>> Parliament Accepted ‘lex Agrokor’: 83 Representatives For, 2 Abstained, and 46 Against
− If this law is passed, the greatest price will be paid by workers and small suppliers. None of the small suppliers will be able to access their money in a normal way. Those who created the problem have the option to complicate it even further and make it even bigger – Maras states these days. And he is late again. I remember he recorded self-promotional radio spots as a minister, but I do not recall him raising his voice for small suppliers against Agrokor’s practices as the responsible minister for entrepreneurs and craftsmen. He had almost 16 billion reasons (in kunas) to do this by 2015 at the latest, when Agrokor announced in its financial report that its liabilities in 2014 exceeded revenues, which could have meant that even the previously longest payment deadlines became even longer. I just hope Maras is not borrowing books from the library. He would surely have to pay record late fees.
