CRO GOVT PRESENTS A NUMBER OF BILLS TO PARLIAMENT

( Editorial: --> 2175 ) ZAGREB, June 18 (Hina) - The Croatian Government on Thursday sent a number of bills into parliamentary debate, including those on obligations and rights of government officials, the division of Croatian Post and Telecommunications (HPT), peaceful gatherings, and the Government. A clear picture on the property of all government officials is the basic aim of the bill on obligations and rights of government officials, said Premier Zlatko Matesa. Government officials would have to submit written report to the body which appointed them, outlining their current property situation as well as their property situation at the time of taking their posts. The bill specifies that government officials are the President of the Republic, Chief-of-Staff of the President's Office, members of parliament, judges of the Constitutional Court, Government members, judges of the Supreme Court and officials appointed by parliament. Compared to the first reading of the Government bill, the possibility of Government recalling mayors and municipal heads has been removed from the final bill. The Government forwarded into parliamentary debate the final bill on the division of HPT into two public limited companies - Croatian Post and Croatian Telecommunications. In that bill a separate law on the privatisation of post and telecommunications is mentioned for the first time. However it explicitly states that in the privatisation, the Republic of Croatia would be the major shareholder (51 per cent) and every other individual shareholder would at the most hold 10 per cent. The final bill on public gatherings gives cities with a population of more than 100,000 the opportunity to restrict the holding of public gatherings in places where it would interrupt the movement and work of a greater number of citizens. It gives these cities the opportunity to decide at which places such gatherings could take place without notice. (hina) jn bag/ha 181648 MET jun 98