CONSTITUTIONAL COURT SAYS PRIVATISATION MINISTRY ACTED LEGALLY

( Editorial: --> 1843 ) ZAGREB, June 17 (Hina) - The decision of the Constitutional Court not to accept the proposal for assessing the constitutionality of the Law on Transformation of Public Companies, confirms that the Privatisation Ministry and the Croatian Privatisation Fund acted legally in the process of privatisation, Privatisation Minister Milan Kovac told a press conference on Wednesday. Back in 1993, the Social Democratic Union (SDU), Association of Independent Unions of Croatia (SSSH), companies and individuals filed nine requests for assessing the constitutionality of the Law on Transformation of Public Companies. They claimed in their requests that certain provisions in the Law were not congruent with the highest values of the constitutional order of the Republic of Croatia. They also claimed that the Law violates economic constitutional rights, entrepreneurial and market freedoms, the equal legal position on the market of all entrepreneurs and protection of rights gained by capital investment. Asked about "suspicious privatisation cases", Kovac said that question always popped up before elections but he did not deny that there had been such cases. The Privatisation Ministry and financial police are consistently controlling the transformation and privatisation process, and suspicious privatisation cases have been quashed, said Kovac. A report on the work of the Croatian Privatisation Fund, listing all cases where transformation has been annulled, will soon be presented to Parliament. (hina) jn bag/rml 171556 MET jun 98