We believe it is necessary to react to a deficit of democracy which happened in this particular case, notably because the Governing Council extended the mandate to the incumbent director of Hina, Mirko Bolfek, until the year's end. The decision could have been made after the election of the fifth member to the Governing Council which would more important for democracy, Prime Minister Sanader said at the government session.
He reiterated that last week the government proposed to parliament that Vladimir Lulic be appointed fifth member of the Governing Council. Lulic was nominated by the Hina's Workers' Council.
We accepted the proposal of the Hina Workers' Council and forwarded it to parliament which should have discussed it during the ongoing session, so as to make Hina's Governing Council complete, the PM said.
"If it wanted to act in accordance with the law, the Governing Council shouldn't have ignored the fact concerning the election of the fifth member," Sanader said, stressing this represented "a great deficit of democracy".
Sanader also said that based on the Hina Act, action can be taken if any damage was done to the agency.
He reiterated there was no need to appoint a new director before the fifth member of the Governing Council was elected. By doing so, employees have been denied the possibility to voice their opinion about candidates for agency director.
The government therefore proposed to parliament to relieve of duty members of the Governing Council Bozo Skoko, Dijana Katica, Drazen Jovic and Ivan Rusan, whom the parliament appointed on 13 July.
The Hina Governing Council on Thursday elected Smiljanka Skugor-Hrncevic among five candidates to succeed Mirko Bolfek as the agency's director.
According to the government, a new Governing Council needs to be appointed. The new council will then invite new applications for Hina's director.