PRIME MINISTER ANSWERS QUESTIONS IN PARLIAMENT

ZAGREB, Feb 25 (Hina) - The Croatian government has launched an investigation into Croatian Roads and Croatian Highways following allegations that the two state companies did not abide by public bids when signing construction agreements, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader told parliament during question time on Wednesday.#L# Sanader was responding to the question by independent MP Slaven Letica as to whether the Office for the Prevention of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) and the Office of the Public Prosecutor would look into the legality of supplements to an agreement signed with an Italian construction company, which he said was US500 million in the red. The prime minister said the managers of the two state companies would be held to account. Damir Kajin of the Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) asked how the government would tackle the debt crisis since some analyses showed that the public debt would increase to around US30 billion before the end of this government's term of office. Sanader replied that a projected 3.2 percent increase in GDP was one of the measures aimed at preventing foreign borrowing. He added that he was optimistic and that he could not accept "such a black scenario". Tonci Tadic of the Party of Rights (HSP) asked why the police had arrested three minors from Skabrnja and questioned them without the presence of their parents and lawyers, and why they had searched the home of the leader of the HSP branch in Skabrnja. Interior Minister Marjan Mlinaric said that the police, investigating a case of burning of the house of a Serb returnee in Biljani Donji, had acted in accordance with the law, that the minors had been questioned in the presence of their parents, and that the home of the local HSP leader had been searched under a court order. (Hina) vm sb