INA: STERN NOT SURPRISED BY RECALL, DRAGICEVIC ANNOUNCES CHANGES

ZAGREB, Mar 1 (Hina) - The newly-appointed director general of Croatia's oil company INA, Tomislav Dragicevic, on Wednesday said he was familiar with all of INA's problems, and announced the creation of legal assumptions for a new structure of INA's board. If we want to privatise INA we will have to provide room for it to function as western companies do, said Dragicevic. Speaking about the new board, he said "INA is one of a few state- or mainly state-owned companies with a director general at its head, whereas most have a board of several members." INA's former director Davor Stern said he was not surprised by a decision on his recall. "Every owner has the right to decide on the man who will lead the company on his behalf," he said. Stern wished Dragicevic to have a better cooperation with the government, pointing out he had absolutely no support from the owner, namely the government, especially last year when the price of crude oil on the market was rising. Last year, the price of oil on the world market rose from ten to 28 US dollars per barrel, while the Croatian government in most part did not acknowledge INA's demands for a correction of the derivatives' prices, Stern said. He asserted failure to acknowledge said fact and allowing "the spiral of illiquidity to reach such tragic proportions" had brought INA to the present difficult situation. (hina) ha jn