The Commission for Decision-Making on Conflict of Interest on Friday fined State Secretary in the Ministry of Administration Josipa Rimac 4,000 kuna for an inaccurate and incomplete declaration in her asset card, in which she did not report that she owns three apartments, but only reported a house in Knin.
It was established as a shortcoming that Rimac (HDZ) listed a house owned by her husband in the asset card, but the house is divided into three separate apartments, so it is not one property, but three.
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– We can undoubtedly establish that the official here violated the provisions of the law regarding the accurate and complete presentation of data about her assets. Regardless of the exact value and legality of acquiring that property, it is not true in relation to the data from the land registry, said the rapporteur in the Commission, Tončica Božić.
The Commission agreed that Rimac could have requested that body for additional explanations regarding the asset declaration in the card, but she did not do so, nor did she amend the data even after the initiation of proceedings due to the conflict of interest.
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– There is a possibility to write everything that needs to be clarified in a note, and then there would be no problem. This has been going on for a long time, and the official has not amended the data in the asset card since 2016, and given the fact that she has already been sanctioned for violations of the reporting provisions regarding assets, I propose a sanction of 4,000 kuna, said Božić.
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Rimac can pay the imposed sanction in two installments.
Matko Glunčić did not take care of credibility and impartiality, but there are no prescribed sanctions for that.
The Commission also decided that in the case of State Secretary in the Ministry of Science and Education Matko Glunčić, regarding the allocation of funds to an association of which he was a member and the magazine published by the association, there was a violation of principles, as he did not take sufficient care of his own credibility and impartiality. However, there are no prescribed sanctions for that provision.
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According to a non-anonymous report submitted against him, it is stated that the Ministry in which Glunčić is State Secretary paid the magazine Mathematical-Physical List almost 70,000 kuna. At the same time, Glunčić was a member of the Management Board of the Croatian Physical Society that publishes the magazine.
He was reported to have made decisions on financing the Croatian Physical Society at the time he was a candidate for a member of the Management Board of the association, which he eventually became, and that he made decisions on material assistance for the magazine Mathematical-Physical List, publisher of the Croatian Physical Society.
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The Commission for Conflict of Interest established that the commission proposing decisions was not elected during his mandate and that the public call was issued by the previous minister Predrag Šustar. This, according to the position of the Commission for Conflict of Interest, indicates that Glunčić could not abuse rights when making decisions, but only formally signed decisions.
No proceedings were initiated against Reiner.
The Commission did not initiate proceedings against the Vice President of the Croatian Parliament Željko Reiner (HDZ), against whom two reports were received in May last year stating that he became a knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, thereby becoming subordinate to the Holy Father. In the reports, the Commission questions whether it is a conflict of interest for the Vice President of the Parliament, the highest legislative body of a sovereign state, to be directly subordinate to the sovereign of another state.
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By reviewing all collected and all available public data, the Commission established that the Order of the Holy Sepulchre is an organization that consists of a group of believers, and that the title of knight conferred upon Reiner is primarily honorary and protocolar and is not unusual among prominent individuals and holders of public functions around the world. They also note that it is not a state function, but a religious one.
The mere membership in the order is not considered contrary to the principles of performing public duties by the Commission, nor does it call into question impartiality, but it points out to the official that in each individual situation where membership in the order could affect the performance of public duties in the Parliament, he would be obliged to seek the opinion of the Commission.
