RACAN DEMANDS COOPERATION BETWEEN STATE PROSECUTION, POLICE

ZAGREB, Nov 2 (Hina) - Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan said on Friday the task of Interior Ministry, Justice Ministry and the State Prosecutor's Office officials was not to polemise and speak publicly but to work more in the prosecution of crimes because this was what the government and the public expected from them. Racan said this after a meeting he convened in connection with a dispute which erupted between the Interior Ministry and the State Prosecutor's Office after a discovery of a large tax theft. Present at the meeting were Interior Minister Sime Lucin, Chief State Prosecutor Radovan Ortinsky, head of police Ranko Ostojic and Justice Minister Ingrid Anticevic-Marinovic. "Tax fraud is a serious crime in any country and it is prosecuted by all legal means. In this case as well it was necessary to show more cooperation in the prosecution of such a form of crime instead of the public affair between the State Prosecutor's Office and the police, the institutions which must cooperate and show efficiency," Racan said. He said that the behaviour of individuals in the State Prosecution regarding the issue was not right. "It is not right to publicly criticise instead of immediately clearing the problem and it is not right to fail to act in line with an order," the prime minister said. He stressed that the issue of responsibility within the State Prosecutor's Office would be cleared within several days. When asked about the fate of the Zagreb County State Prosecutor, Dunja Pavlicek-Patak, who failed to act in line with Ortynski's order to prolong detention to suspects in the tax fraud, Racan said this was not a government matter, but that of the State Prosecutor's Office. He said the government would discuss this at one of its sessions. "We cannot generally speak about the problem of bad relations and cooperation between the State Prosecutor's Office and the police, because unlike this case, cooperation in many cases was good," the Prime Minister said. He said the government would discuss how do ensure good cooperation in the prosecution of crimes by implementing additional measures. From the beginning, cooperation could be made possible through amendments to the penal code, the Prime Minister said. (hina) it sb