CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR SAYS RESIGNATION IS POSSIBLE

ZAGREB, June 13 (Hina) - Croatian National Bank (HNB) governor Zeljko Rohatinski stated in parliament on Thursday that not one parliament in any other country would attack their central bank due to an affair in just one bank as was currently the case in Croatia. He told MPs that he would not even attempt to defend his position with rotten compromises. #L# "If you think that I am not doing my job well, I will immediately resign without any scenes," Rohatinski said at the end of a parliamentary discussion on the HNB's annual report. The MPs mostly objected to the HNB's role in the Rijecka Bank affair. Rohatinski answered that the HNB had received an anonymous tip and subsequently requested a report by its internal audit, as well as an audit of that bank. "We trusted the report because it was compiled by a highly-paid external auditor. Under the law, he is responsible for the authenticity of the report," the governor said. Not one central bank is able to organise the supervision of banks on the basis of anonymous tips alone, Rohatinski said. Rohatinski also commented on MPs' remarks that the HNB annual report was not sufficiently detailed. He emphasised that the report was a great deal more detailed than standard reports by central banks in the world. The HNB even went to the point of describing individual transactions which is not usual practise, he said. He stated that the HNB's activities were often judged by expert groups of anonymous experts whose objections were often incorrect. (hina) sp sb