TURUDIC REFUSES ALLEGATIONS ABOUT HER LIABILITY

ZAGREB, April 15 (Hina) - A former vice-president of the Croatian Privatisation Fund (HFP), Marija Turudic, on Saturday declined all allegations the Fund gave about her liability as the head of the Rijeka-based Croatia Line company's Supervisory Board. On Friday the incumbent president of the Privatisation Fund, Hrvoje Vojkovic, said the HFP had pressed charges against members of leaderships in three companies - NAMA (chain of department stores), PIK Vrbovec (meat packing industry) and Croatia Line (shipping company) - after they failed to initiate bankruptcy procedures as soon as legal conditions were met for such action. The Fund demanded an investigation into possible cases of white- collar crime in the aforementioned firms. Saying that she is not in detail acquainted with the charges, Marija Turudic claimed that a member of the supervisory board could not be accused of failing to instigate a bankruptcy procedure. "The issue of Croatia Line has been known in the public and to all relevant bodies for many years, and problems relating to that company dated back to a period much before my appointment to the office of the Supervisory Board's head... The Supervisory Board's activities were in accordance with the economic policy of the Croatian Government which was carried out in hundreds of other firms in similar financial difficulty," Turudic wrote adding that Croatia Line was of the strategic and national interest for Croatia. (hina) jn ms