ZAGREB, Oct 26 (Hina) - The Croatian government at Thursday's session adopted a project on the organisation of the Corruption and Organised Crime Prevention Office and a general tax bill. The government also adopted a conclusion
binding the ministries of justice and the interior to prepare by year's end at the latest a bill on the activity and jurisdiction of the said Office. Existing judicial institutions are incapable of ensuring fast and effective action in preventing corruption and organised crime, so it is necessary to establish an office with a certain degree of independence in relation to other state bodies, said Justice Minister Stjepan Ivanisevic. The office, initially employing 25 people, would have a department for research, data collecting and coordination, and one for criminal proceedings. The project is based on Italian experience and calls for passing an act regulating said issues. Curre
ZAGREB, Oct 26 (Hina) - The Croatian government at Thursday's
session adopted a project on the organisation of the Corruption and
Organised Crime Prevention Office and a general tax bill.
The government also adopted a conclusion binding the ministries of
justice and the interior to prepare by year's end at the latest a
bill on the activity and jurisdiction of the said Office.
Existing judicial institutions are incapable of ensuring fast and
effective action in preventing corruption and organised crime, so
it is necessary to establish an office with a certain degree of
independence in relation to other state bodies, said Justice
Minister Stjepan Ivanisevic.
The office, initially employing 25 people, would have a department
for research, data collecting and coordination, and one for
criminal proceedings.
The project is based on Italian experience and calls for passing an
act regulating said issues. Current legislation will have to be
changed as it does not recognise repenters, protected witnesses,
the searching of premises, or the temporary denial of property
gain.
According to Interior Minister Sime Lucin, the implementation of
the project will meet resistance and a media campaign. He pointed to
the need of passing a national corruption prevention programme, and
advocated a more detailed regulation of jurisdiction, intervention
operations, and warrant issuing.
Deputy Prime Minister Slavko Linic said people should be sent to
Italy for training so that the office might start working as soon as
a decision on its establishment was passed.
Labour and Social Welfare Minister Davorko Vidovic said a national
programme was necessary also because a corruption culture had taken
root in Croatia which people had learned to live with.
Public Works and Reconstruction Minister Radimir Cacic pointed to
the issue of disability pensions, a field, he said, where criminal
activities were the most widespread.
According to First Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic, each
ministry has to pass measures to fight corruption within their own
ranks.
Prime Minister Ivica Racan said corruption and organised crime were
a grave issue in Croatia, and that over the next month the
government should come up with the concept of a national programme
or strategy for fighting corruption.
The endorsed general tax bill regulates legal relations and
taxpayers' and tax bodies' conduct in applying tax provisions.
The government also endorsed a narcotics abuse prevention bill.
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