In its motion, the two opposition parties said the government should have known about the irregularities as the HFP Act bound it to supervise the Fund's work. By failing to do so, the government facilitated corruption and the loss of millions, the two parties said.
Vesna Pusic of the HNS said that the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) and the Chief State Prosecutor's Office said that HFP officials had received 800,000 euros in bribes.
She underlined that Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polancec was the chair of the HFP Steering Board and that three more ministers sat on the board.
The HNS official said that the government had appointed Grga Ivezic HFP president and that he could make decisions on the sale of shares and equity portions of up to 10 million kuna without the Steering Board's consent. She also stressed this indicated that Ivezic, who is also the state secretary heading the Central Office for State Property Management, consented to every decision made by the HFP board of directors.
Pusic underlined that criminal responsibility of the arrested HFP officials must be established in court, but that it was up to the parliament to establish the government's political responsibility.
Commenting on the motion, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said in parliament that his government was politically responsible for the success of Operation Maestro, which saw six Croatian Privatisation Fund officials arrested for taking bribes, and determination in the fight against corruption.
"We are politically responsible for the success of this operation, for the fact that criminals in Croatia no longer sleep in peace," Sanader said in parliament.
He stressed that Operation Maestro was the success of the rule of law, the best proof that Croatian society was making headway in the struggle against corruption.
Responding to Pusic's accusations that his government was responsible because three of its ministers sat on the HFP Steering Board, the PM said that ministers of the former government also sat on that board and did nothing.
He underlined that it was important to reach agreement in parliament about the issue of fighting corruption because the problem of corruption was above party interests.