Relevant authorities should take all the necessary steps to prosecute economic crime, organised crime and corruption, and all state bodies have been urged to deal with their cases promptly, Bajic said at a press conference in Zagreb commenting on Tuesday's meeting of the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and the Parliament Speaker on this subject.
The state leadership supported requests for reinforcing state prosecution offices and the police in terms of financial resources and personnel and for adopting legal amendments that would make the fight against organised crime more effective.
Under new legislation on criminal procedure which is being drafted, investigations would be carried out by the police and state prosecution offices rather than by courts, as now is the case, while judges would ensure that evidence is gathered in accordance with the law, Bajic said.
Bajic cited the slowness of procedure as the main problem in prosecuting crime, saying that it compromises everything the police and state prosecution offices do.
Yesterday's meeting also highlighted the need to change tax regulations and introduce declarations of assets as a precondition to combating corruption effectively.
Asked about the progress of an investigation into money flows and people who had helped General Ante Gotovina to evade arrest for years, Bajic said that the police and the tax authority had not suspended the investigation in the case, but declined to reveal any details.
Responding to a reporter's comment that the meeting at government headquarters coincided with a European Commission report criticising Croatia for dealing with corruption only at lower levels and that none of the senior political officials had ever been brought to account, the Director of the Office for the Suppression of Organised Crime and Corruption (USKOK), Dinko Cvitan, admitted poor results in that field, saying that USKOK was verifying all reports it received.
"No one is privileged in this country," Cvitan said, expressing hope that the public would soon be able to see better results in combating corruption and organised crime.
Chief of Police Marijan Benko said that in the first eight months of this year the white-collar crime rate had increased almost nine per cent.