In a debate on the proposal to list companies of special state interest, opposition clubs of deputies warned that the law in question was adopted to prevent conflict of interest, something they claimed the government was now preparing to commit.
The opposition was unanimous that companies of special state interest, whose supervisory boards would include state officials, cannot be all companies just because 25 percent or more of their capital is owned by the state and because they are in the portfolio of the Privatisation Fund.
"This decision will turn the Commission for the Prevention of Conflict of Interest into a commission covering up conflict of interest," said Pero Kovacevic of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP).
He proposed that young highly qualified persons be appointed to companies' supervisory boards.
Antun Kapraljevic of the Croatian People's Party/Primorje-Gorski Kotar Alliance (HNS/PGS) club of deputies criticised the government for violating the relevant law by failing to submit the list on time, namely by the end of February.
He said that the original plan was to compile a list of 20-30 companies of special state interest and warned that once towns and municipalities submitted their lists, the final list would consist of all companies in the country.
Ljubica Lalic of the Peasant Party (HSS) agreed with Kapraljevic, warning that appointing state officials and politicians into companies' supervisory boards often meant the bankruptcy of those companies.
"Are we facing the continuation of privatisation from the mid-1990s," she asked, adding that media reports about "the appointment of sons-in-law, brothers-in-law, godfathers and friends of some ministers into supervisory boards" pointed to that conclusion.
The remark provoked a stormy reaction from Branimir Glavas of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).
"The former government appointed the wives, ex-wives and mistresses of various functionaries as ambassadors and Constitutional Court judges, so to be able to lecture others, one must have a clean face," said Glavas earning himself a reprimand.
Emil Tomljanovic of the HDZ said that his party would support the list, which he said would determine regulations on the appointment of state officials into companies' supervisory boards in exceptional cases.