Dalić: I will sue Todorić for ‘brazen lies’, defamation

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts, Martina Dalić, stated on Friday that a few days’ delay in the publication of the revised financial statements for Agrokor, due to the complexity and scope of the work, does not pose any problem, and announced that she will file a lawsuit against Ivica Todorić due to his statements yesterday.

In response to a question about why the audit report on Agrokor’s operations was not published today as announced, Dalić said that the company, together with the auditor, informed that due to the scope of work and the number of companies, the audit has not been completed to date.

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“In relation to the complexity of that job, in relation to its scope, I think that a few days does not pose any problem,” said Dalić. In response to an additional journalist’s question about whether there were any political influences on the auditing firm, she stated that there were none and that she has never met the auditors from PwC, the company responsible for that audit.

Regarding yesterday’s accusations made against her by Ivica Todorić, that she threatened members of the Agrokor Management Board and their families with arrests via email, Dalić said that everything said in that text is “a brazen lie.”

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“My lawyers will further discuss with the author of that text, Ivica Todorić. I will file a report, a lawsuit, whatever you want to call it, for defamation, endangerment of reputation, and everything that the lawyers will consider arising from such statements and writings,” concluded Dalić.

“National drama”

The audit report, which is expected to be published in a week, was also commented on by County Mayor Radimir Čačić, who said that we should not create a national drama out of every relatively marginal event.

He believes that it is quite possible that the audit report, as a huge task carried out by several dozen people from a first-class global company, requires some refinement and additional analyses and assessments, as well as the tone and interpretation of that same report.

“Given the reputation of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, one of the best global companies, I think we can and must expect an objective and correct expert finding. If another five to ten days will help make it so, there is no great harm in that,” said Čačić, adding that as far as the Croatian public is concerned, the most important thing is that political or public pressures do not disrupt that expected activity.

Agrokor reported on Thursday that neither the group nor PwC has yet completed the complex task of preparing and auditing the consolidated financial statements of the group and expects that they will be published by the end of next week.

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“We hereby inform that Agrokor and PwC have not yet, each in their part, completed the complex task of preparing and auditing the consolidated financial statements of the Agrokor group, which consists of more than 40 companies in several countries. Agrokor expects to publish the revised consolidated financial statements by the end of next week,” it was announced from Agrokor.

Before the sudden delay, it was expected that the revised reports would be published on Friday afternoon.

Earlier this week, the media speculated that the group’s loss for 2016 reached 15 billion kuna. In May, the extraordinary administration announced that the group’s debts exceeded 40 billion kuna.