ZAGREB, Feb 6 (Hina) - The parliamentary Commission on Conflict of Interests Prevention held its constituent session on Friday, electing Antun Kapraljevic of the opposition Croatian People's Party (HNS) its acting chairman.
ZAGREB, Feb 6 (Hina) - The parliamentary Commission on Conflict of
Interests Prevention held its constituent session on Friday, electing
Antun Kapraljevic of the opposition Croatian People's Party (HNS) its
acting chairman.#L#
The election of the chairman has been postponed until the seventh
Commission member has been elected, members said after today's
closed-door session, suggesting to the opposition to agree on a
candidate for that seat as soon as possible. The chairman will also be
from the opposition.
The Commission called on the government to submit a list of companies
of state interest and data on gifts received by state officials.
Kapraljevic said the legality of the payment of salaries for state and
local officials, which he added had been questionable until now,
depended on the commission's work.
He called on about 2,000 local officials to declare their assets to
the Commission, as state officials had done.
Within 30 days the Commission will adopt Rules of Procedure and launch
its web site, where citizens will be able to anonymously report
conflict of interests.
The constituent session had been called by Parliament President
Vladimir Seks, who said today there were no legal obstacles to the
payment of officials' salaries since they had declared their assets on
time.
Commenting on accusations from part of the opposition that the ruling
Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) had elected the Commission's
opposition members disregarding the will of most opposition clubs,
"thus paving the way for future conflicts of interests," Seks said
such accusations were ridiculous.
He said the results of the Commission's work would be public and that
the law on the prevention of conflict of interests did not stipulate
how many opposition members had to be elected to the Commission.
Seks also dismissed claims that the HDZ had agreed with the opposition
on how many members from the ruling parties and how many from the
opposition the Commission would have.
He said the cause of the disagreements over the appointment of
opposition members to the Commission was the conflict in relations
between the HNS and the Social Democratic Party. Seks also dismissed
claims that the HDZ's reputation had been undermined because of the
disagreements.
(Hina) ha