ZAGREB, May 24 (Hina) - The State Audit Office is surprised by the government's conclusions on a report on the privatisation audit adopted on Thursday and believes that everything the government has demanded of it has already been
done.
ZAGREB, May 24 (Hina) - The State Audit Office is surprised by the
government's conclusions on a report on the privatisation audit
adopted on Thursday and believes that everything the government has
demanded of it has already been done. #L#
The government has suggested that the Sabor not adopt the report but
request that it be amended to include the names of those who
committed violations in the privatisation process.
The government also objects that the Audit Office did not press
charges against the perpetrators with the State Prosecutor's
Office.
The Audit Office stresses that the report will be forwarded to the
State Prosecutor once it has passed parliamentary procedure.
The Office is not in charge of pressing criminal charges, it
establishes facts and forwards them to the Sabor, after which they
can be forwarded on to the relevant bodies, the Office's Public
Relations Office head Biserka Coh Mikulec told Hina of Friday.
Responding further to the government's objections, she said that
each of the names of the companies involved and their ownership
structure at the beginning of privatisation and at present were
listed in individual company reports.
The government has requested that the Audit Office establish who in
the Agency for Restructuring, the Croatian Privatisation Fund, and
ministries was responsible for irregularities in the privatisation
process.
The final report apparently does not name any of the heads of those
bodies. However, the Audit Office's response is that it is well
known who headed the agencies and when.
The government has further suggested that the report is
inconsistent, which the Audit Office rejects, explaining that the
audit was conducted in 100 companies using uniform methodology.
The Office did not wish to comment on speculations that the Chief
State Auditor Sima Krasic was to resign following the government's
criticism.
The report should be discussed in the Sabor next week.
The audit is to encompass a total of 1,982 companies and each
company will be treated in the same fashion. The audit was to have
been completed by year's end, but it appears this will not be
achieved within the time set and the government has been
considering extending the deadline.
(hina) sp rml