SABOR, June 20 (Hina) - A large number of parliamentary benches on Thursday agreed that the re-organisation of the Croatian Interior Ministry had been conducted hastily and without coordination.
SABOR, June 20 (Hina) - A large number of parliamentary benches on
Thursday agreed that the re-organisation of the Croatian Interior
Ministry had been conducted hastily and without coordination.#L#
On Thursday morning the Croatian parliament discussed a report on
the problem of unassigned police officers.
Deputy Interior Minister Josip Vresk told the parliament that there
was a total of 834 surplus policemen. Of them, 154 will be re-
employed by the interior ministry, 189 will find new jobs in the
customs administration and in prisons, whereas 491 will have to
seek new jobs via the Employment Office. One hundred and twenty
(120) former policemen have been retired and 28 found now jobs.
Vresk said the ministry's disciplinary commission had suspended
many senior officials in the ministry due to irregularities in
deciding who of the police officers should be left without the job.
However, the administrative court will have a final say in the
matter, Vresk added.
Djurdja Adlesic, the head of the parliamentary national security
committee and a Croatian Social Liberal (HSLS) Party member, said
the reform of the interior ministry had been launched hastily and
without through preparations.
Adlesic informed that the committee at whose head she is, asked for
the interpretation of commitments from the Erdut Agreement on a
quota of ethnic Serbs employed as policemen.
Vlado Jukic of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) claimed that
"members of the occupying forces who had shot at their colleagues,
were admitted in the Croatian police although they were not worthy
of it," and furthermore "they have no necessary education (for the
job)."
Jukic insists that Serb policemen from the Erdut Agreement's quota
should be in the same position as Croatian unassigned officers.
The HSLS bench warns that reforms should now be conducted in the
defence ministry and that mistakes from the re-organisation of the
interior ministry should be avoided.
The Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) bench said the government had
started solving easier problems, and after the reorganisation of
the interior ministry it feared to cut a surplus of employees in the
military. Damir Kajin of the IDS predicted that the government
would probably postpone the re-organisation of the army for a
period after the next parliamentary elections.
Kajin added that the rationalisation of the state administration
must go on despite problems.
The Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS) bench also advocated the reform
in the state administration. Ante Markov of the HSS added that some
other ministries had not yet embarked on the rationalisation.
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) believes that the reforms are
necessary.
Stjepan Henzi on behalf of the SDP bench said the unassigned police
officers could not claim that they were stripped of their rights. In
this context he said that they were offered alternative solutions
or could appeal against the decisions in the courts.
Henezi said he was sorry that there war veterans among the policemen
who lost their jobs, but another 40,000 war veterans were already on
the dole seeking jobs.
Ivan Jarnjak of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) said his party
did not oppose the rationalisation but it insisted that the reforms
be conducted in compliance of determined criteria.
Jarnjak, a former Interior Minister, said the police force and army
had been created during the aggression against Croatia, and the
interior ministry at the time could not respect the criterion of the
education and skills.
Vresk replied to him saying that all policemen had been given enough
time to finish the secondary school after the war.
(hina) ms