PARLIAMENT'S ECONOMY COMMITTEE ENDORSES PRIVATISATION AUDIT BILL

ZAGREB, May 23 (Hina) - The Economy, Development and Reconstruction Committee of the Croatian parliament's House of Representatives on Tuesday endorsed a privatisation audit bill. MPs of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Croatian Party of Rights abstained. They do not oppose audits, but believe a separate law regulating the issue is unnecessary. The privatisation law has been breached many times over the past decade and this calls for an audit, Assistant Economy Minister Dusko Zuric said presenting the bill. The audit and control would be carried out by the State Audit Bureau. The bill precisely states the procedure and cases in which the audit may be effected. The economy has many problems, yet we are discussing a bill turned to the past and which could bring under suspicion every business venture of the past ten years, said HDZ's Djuro Njavro. Njavro believes the bill could jeopardise the security of institutions because, he says, no one will want to work with a company whose privatisation is being audited. The bill could result in major economic and social losses, and small or no benefits, he said, adding the audit was an issue of rule-of-law effectiveness, and not of a new law. Njavro's speech elicited heated comments from the ruling six-party coalition, whose MPs assessed the formerly ruling HDZ had done nothing in connection with privatisation audits yet was now advising on what ought to be done. We should have had the rule-of-law before, yet we did not, said Marko Baricevic of the Croatian Social Liberal Party. Now that we want to establish the rule-of-law and replace those who prevented it until now, the Opposition is accusing us of revenge seeking, he asserted. According to Economy, Development and Reconstruction Committee chairwoman, the Social Democratic Party's Dragica Zgrebec, Croatia's citizens have been completely dissatisfied with the privatisation law, which makes an audit imperative. We must find out who is responsible for thousands of people losing their jobs, MPs of the ruling coalition said. Companies were bought for a song, their entire money was sucked out, and once led to bankruptcy, they were returned to the state, the MPs said. The workers who created those companies were left on the street, while those responsible remained unpunished. In the long run, the results of the privatisation bill will certainly be positive, the Croatian Peasants' Party's Marijan Marsic told HDZ's Njavro. The Economy, Development and Reconstruction Committee today endorsed another three bills regulating the auditing of privatisation, namely bills of amendments to the privatisation law, the state audit law, and the register of companies law. (hina) ha jn