If it is established that the contract was the result of harmful and illegal dealings, which could not have occurred without domestic accessories, it is an opportunity to declare it null and void and free the towns from possibly paying HRK 100 million in damages for cancelling the contract, Vrkic told reporters in the eastern city of Osijek.
"After the media reported that Strabag paid a million euros in bribes to build motorways in Croatia... how much was it necessary to give someone in Osijek to get HRK 100 million?" he asked.
Vrkic said there were reports that Strabag had operated in the same way in east Germany and that the Austrian authorities were investigating similar bribes Strabag had allegedly given for jobs in some regions. He wondered how come nobody thought of checking who they were doing business with if it was obvious that Strabag operated like that.
"We see that this is the model of conduct of a company which seriously embarked on this job with the intention to collect money it didn't deserve, that an international criminal web has been spun here, and we hope our investigators will realise this."
Vrkic said Strabag could not have acted without accessories in Croatia, confident that the charges pressed would result in someone ending behind bars and that the contract would be declared null and void.
He said the heads of five towns in the Slavonia region last week sent a letter to Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, requesting talks on the matter, "to stop Strabag, which also has some other business interests in Croatia, until this problem is solved," and, in case the lawsuit was lost in appeal, to arrange a settlement together with the government.
Zagreb's Commercial Court recently handed down a decision under which ZOIS lost in a dispute with Strabag and Saubermacher over the cancellation of the landfill contract, whose construction never began. If the decision is upheld, the towns which founded ZOIS - Vukovar, Vinkovci, Beli Manastir, Zupanja and Osijek - will have to pay HRK 100 million in damages.
The contract was cancelled in January 2009 because of non-compliance. The landfill was to have been built on the outskirts of Osijek and the contract was cancelled primarily because a building permit was not issued within the prescribed time. After the cancellation, Strabag and Saubermacher launched court proceedings, seeking damages to cover lost profits.
(EUR 1 = HRK 7.6)