The government vowed to help this factory although it is privately owned, but added that it would not help anybody accountable for the company's bankruptcy to be amnestied from their responsibility.
The ITAS factory, based in the northern town of Ivanec, has recently become one of the main topics of the Croatian media after a majority of its 250 workers decided to go on hunger strike to prevent the factory's liquidation.
The disgruntled workers opted for such a move after the state-run HEP company cut off power supply to ITAS owing to its rising debt to the power producing company.
The Ivo Sanader cabinet today decided that the debt of 531,000 kuna which ITAS owes HEP should be included into the bankruptcy estate.
An official of the Croatian Justice Ministry told the government that there were indications that the relevant court should address the matter as some responsible persons from the ITAS company seem to have concluded agreements to the detriment of the company, pushing it into bankruptcy.
Ministers said that ITAS was one of the examples of poorly conducted privatisation.
The bankruptcy procedure was initiated on 25 October. Employees have not received salaries for seven months and the debt, expressed in overdue salaries, is 13-15 million kuna.
The original capital of the company was slashed from 41 million kuna in 1998 to 27 million kuna.
(EUR1 = 7.4 kuna)