LIBRA LEADER COMMENTS ON PUBLISHING OF DECLARATIONS OF ASSETS

ZAGREB, May 5 (Hina) - The leader of Libra party, Jozo Rados, has said that declarations of assets of Croatian parliamentary members were made public yesterday "in an extremely primitive way" and added that publishing declarations of assets rather than tax records favours an anti-entrepreneurial climate and a negative attitude towards MPs.#L# Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Rados said yesterday's publishing of declarations of assets of all MPs by the parliamentary commission on conflict of interest, with the media giving extensive coverage of the event, was an act of "throwing dust in the eyes of the public". He explained that under the Law on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest tax records were public documents. He added that he had requested the finance minister to grant him access to the tax records of all government members and the parliamentary leadership but was told that under the general tax law tax records were confidential. Rados recalled that the right of access to declarations of assets was granted by both the Law on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest and the Law on the Right of Access to Information. He concluded that in this case the Law on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest had precedence over the general tax law. "The purpose of the Law on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest is to establish if an official acquired his property lawfully and not to establish what he possesses," Rados said. (Hina) rml