ZAGREB, July 1 (Hina) - Croatia's Interior Minister Sime Lucin on Sunday said nobody had pressed him or the ministry to withdraw charges which the police has preferred against a former finance minister, Borislav Skegro, and the
Croatian Telekom (HT) management president, Ivica Mudrinic, on suspicion that they had embezzled about 215 million kuna from the budget during the first stage of privatisation of the state-owned Croatian Telekom. According to Sunday's reports published in some media, a day after the police pressed the charges against Skegro and Mudrinic at the Zagreb municipal State Prosecutor's office, Croatia's First Deputy Prime Minister, Goran Granic, asked for the discontinuation of the investigation against them and the government exerted pressure on the interior ministry to withdraw the charges. "Nobody has pressed the interior ministry or me personally, nor w
ZAGREB, July 1 (Hina) - Croatia's Interior Minister Sime Lucin on
Sunday said nobody had pressed him or the ministry to withdraw
charges which the police has preferred against a former finance
minister, Borislav Skegro, and the Croatian Telekom (HT)
management president, Ivica Mudrinic, on suspicion that they had
embezzled about 215 million kuna from the budget during the first
stage of privatisation of the state-owned Croatian Telekom.
According to Sunday's reports published in some media, a day after
the police pressed the charges against Skegro and Mudrinic at the
Zagreb municipal State Prosecutor's office, Croatia's First Deputy
Prime Minister, Goran Granic, asked for the discontinuation of the
investigation against them and the government exerted pressure on
the interior ministry to withdraw the charges.
"Nobody has pressed the interior ministry or me personally, nor
were the charges preferred exactly before the start of negotiations
on the sale of the HT," Lucin told reporters during Sunday's regular
meeting with citizens and reports in the government's office.
Lucin said the police had pressed charges before two or three weeks
and the enquiry in the entire case had been conducted for a few
months.
Asked whether he had threatened to resign two days ago during a
conference of the ministry's departments heads due to his
dissatisfaction with the slow reorganisation of the ministry,
Lucin said he had not tendered resignation.
"I only said that all of us would have to step down if we did not do a
job we had began to do...," he asserted.
He added that there were no major problems in the ministry's
reorganisation, which was near completion.
Lucin added that it was normal that now when the changes should
finally be materialised, people resented them or were dissatisfied
as they usually faced the changes with resistance.
There will be layoffs and about 1,800 police officers and 1,700
employees of the ministry will be made redundant during the re-
organisation.
A part of them who have no adequate school qualifications or have
had problems in the service cannot find new jobs in the ministry
within legal regulations, the minister said adding that a programme
for creation of new jobs for the fired workers would also soon be
completed.
He, however, admitted, that the provision of jobs for those persons
would depend on the situation in other ministries as well.
After the layoffs, Croatia will still have more police officers in
ratio to the number of citizens and criminal acts, in comparison to
other European countries.
I cannot assert that all 3,500 redundant workers will immediately
be offered new jobs, but, certainly, most of them will be provided
with employment, Lucin said adding that definitely 600 of those
layoffs have already been covered by the said programme.
(hina) ms