Psychological Spring: How much has Jasna Omejec earned from the chambers and what has she done for them in return?

The initiative Psychological Spring sent requests for access to information regarding payments to Jasna Omejec, the former president of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia, to a total of five chambers. The Croatian Chamber of Architects (HKA), the Croatian Chamber of Mechanical Engineers (HKIS), the Croatian Chamber of Electrical Engineers (HKIE), and the Croatian Chamber of Civil Engineers (HKIG) received requests from Psychological Spring on February 11, 2020, which is more than 3 months ago, but none of them provided the requested information. The only chamber that provided data on payments related to Jasna Omejec was the Croatian Chamber of Economy (HGK), which spent approximately 200,000 kuna on Jasna Omejec from August 2017 to December 2019. This chamber received the request for access to information on April 29, and the response was received on May 13.

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Contract between the former president of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia and the professional chambers

Psychological Spring sent the request regarding payments to Jasna Omejec to the aforementioned professional chambers because she prepared and submitted a legal opinion on constitutional provisions abolishing mandatory membership in the chambers at their request on June 22, 2019.

On May 30, 2019, a contract was concluded between Jasna Omejec, the author of the legal opinion, and the four professional chambers as the clients: HKA, HKIS, HKIE, and HKIG. The work was agreed upon in connection with the Proposal for the Law on Amendments to the Law on Spatial Planning and Construction and the Proposal for the Law on Amendments to the Law on the Chamber of Architects and the Chambers of Engineers in Construction and Spatial Planning, which abolishes membership in the chambers for licensed construction managers and licensed work managers.

In this Legal Opinion, Jasna Omejec states that the purpose of her work is ‘to provide expert and independent legal opinion on the questions posed in the field of constitutional and administrative law, with exclusive respect for the rules of the profession.’

Furthermore, Omejec states: ‘It is hard to call the measure of exemption from paying chamber membership fees (from approximately 1,500.00 kuna to 1,800.00 kuna annually) an appropriate and effective measure of administrative relief for these services, especially in cases where the direct effects of this measure on market operating conditions are negligible, while the harmful consequences for the public law chamber system are enormous.’

Considering that mandatory membership was abolished for a portion of engineers and architects at the end of last year, some of them have deregistered from their chamber, it is not difficult to verify whether they are now paying insurance at 55 times the amount.

The question arises as to how much the four professional chambers paid for such a legal opinion. We requested this information three months ago, but we have not yet received it. However, we did receive a response from the Croatian Chamber of Economy regarding payments to Jasna Omejec.

You can find the complete analysis with all attached documents on the website of Psychological Spring.

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