INA does not support attempts at political scoring regarding the investigation initiated concerning the sale of gas, and twisting the facts to one’s advantage can be misleading to the public. In the six years he spent at the helm of INA’s Supervisory Board, Mr. Vanđelić has never voted against decisions made by that body regarding the operations of INA’s Management and the company’s business, states the response of the largest Croatian oil company to the claims made today by former Supervisory Board President Damir Vanđelić during his appearance on N1 television.
We convey the rest of their statement:
Furthermore, Mr. Vanđelić has never stated at Supervisory Board meetings, nor has he sent an email indicating that INA is losing money, as he claims today. Mr. Vanđelić is today clumsily trying to support his insinuations with emails as alleged evidence. He claims that in an email sent in July 2021, he pointed out that INA was losing money compared to MOL.
The graphs that were sent show the performance of the mentioned companies in 2020, more than a year before the signing of the gas contracts that are now under investigation. They compare the return on assets and return on equity of MOL and INA, which is incomparable due to the different business portfolios of the companies. Furthermore, the financial losses he mentions in the context of suspicion of unauthorized gas sales pertained to INA’s losses from 2020, which occurred due to the „standstill“ caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Vanđelić also twists the facts regarding the dismissals and appointments of new managers at INA. As the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, he indeed requested by email in May 2021 to supplement the meeting with an item about the managers who left the company, noting that some of them did so at their own request. As in other voting cases, Mr. Vanđelić also supported the Management’s decisions at this meeting without further questions or requests.
Let us recall, Vanđelić stated today that he noticed that INA is consistently losing money somewhere. – We sent an email to all Supervisory Board members that INA’s operations are lagging and that we are losing 200 million euros annually, there is clearly a problem. I sent an email to all Management and Supervisory Board members and a copy to Minister Ćorić – explained Vanđelić.
He did not receive responses from Ćorić but was invited to a meeting, where he was told that he ‘politicizes’ and is engaged in some other work. Vanđelić noted that Škugor’s name was not mentioned at that meeting and that he does not know him.
