She announced nine long term reform measures aimed at reducing the budget deficit and the public debt, including a reorganisation of the judicial system, a hospital master plan, the establishment of an optimal school network, and the reform of social contracting.
The planned reforms reflect the government's awareness that things must change and are also intended to show the European Union the direction in which Croatia is going and what it intends to do, Opacic said at a press conference.
She said the government was embarking on these reforms only now because it "came upon a completely disorganised system" and that everything would have crumbled without previous consolidation.
She conceded that Central Salary Accounting (CSA) was late because the system was disorganised. She said the CSA covered about 60,000 employees in 84 institutions, about 30 per cent, covering salaries paid through November.
The system will cover the Interior Ministry in January, followed by employees in health care and education, and institutions active in culture and environmental protection as well as various agencies in the autumn, Opacic said.
She said privileged pensions were reduced this year, and that reorganisation began in the customs and tax departments, the Interior Ministry, welfare institutions, and the State Inspectorate.
New employment in state and public service was put under control, with the decision that there can be no new hiring without a minister's approval, Opacic said.
She went on to say that 52 parafiscal levies, totalling HRK 375 million, were rescinded or reduced this year and that a levy registry was established. She added that the reduction of levies would continue in 2014.
Opacic said the legalisation of buildings built without permits, launched this year, should be completed in the next two. The government predicts that legalisation will bring about HRK 1.2 billion into the state budget over the next five years.
Opacic said a hospital master plan would be adopted by the end of February, when citizens would know where they could obtain which service.
Another reform measure for the period until 2016 includes the establishment of an optimal network of elementary and secondary schools and outsourcing. Opacic said outsourcing was necessary because, for example, 16,000 people of the 85,000 employed in schools worked in secondary activities such as cleaning or deliveries.
She went on to say that the combining of public procurement, which has an annual turnover of about HRK 20 billion, would continue. She said European experience showed that combining could help to save 10 per cent of the funds but that some Croatian ministries had shown that up to 20 per cent could be saved. With the European experience, Croatia could save about HRK 2 billion annually, she added.
Since the Excessive Deficit Procedure envisages saving HRK 3.5 billion in 2014, reporters asked where the funds to make up the difference would be found. Opacic said the question should be put to the finance minister and that a budget revision could be expected in January.
She said the judicial system reorganisation relied on a better organisation of courts, faster case solving, and the specialisation of judges and prosecutors.
A single monetary centre will be established in three stages so that compensations could be paid to citizens from one place, Opacic said, adding that the first stage would be carried out in September.
(EUR 1 = HRK 7.6)