SARAJEVO, March 6 (Hina) - Director-general of the Herceg-Bosna Croat Community's power supply company, Matan Zaric, on Thursday tendered his resignation.
SARAJEVO, March 6 (Hina) - Director-general of the Herceg-Bosna
Croat Community's power supply company, Matan Zaric, on Thursday
tendered his resignation. #L#
High Representative to Bosnia Paddy Ashdown told reporters in
Sarajevo Thursday that he had received Zaric's resignation
notification and had decided to accept it, although he actually
deserved to be dismissed because of omissions in his work.
An audit of the company's business established that the company had
lost 50 million convertible marks (some 25 million euros) in 2001
alone, while the overall amount of unsettled debts to date has
reached 170 million marks.
Ashdown described the company's business operations as shameful
and recalled that a report by independent auditors clearly
indicated that Mostar's firm practically acted as a sort of
treasury for the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party.
The report mentions several times the names of companies suspected
to have served for the Bosnian party's money laundering, as well as
the names of politicians who had directly received money from the
Mostar-based power supply company, including the current Bosnian
Presidency's Croat member, Dragan Covic.
The audit established that the company had paid him 1,500 marks per
month for consulting services, without any evidence to prove that
he had ever done any concrete work for the company.
Ashdown said he expected of Bosnian judicial authorities to take
steps to establish criminal liability for the company's business
and all discovered corruption scandals connected to murky business
arrangements.
(hina) lml sb