CORRUPTION IN JUNE 2021.

Josip Aladrović employs his colleague as head of Social Welfare Control Sector

Josip Aladrović – Minister of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy – hired Sanja Mateljak as head of the Social Welfare Control Sector. The requirement for employment as head of the sector is at least six years of work experience in social welfare, but Ms. Sanja Mateljak has never worked in social welfare prior to her appointment.

Index.hr contacted the Ministry of Labour and asked questions that were not fully answered, and the question Does Sanja Mateljak meet the prescribed conditions for the position of head of the sector for the administrative supervision of social welfare centers?, received an incomplete following answer:

Civil servant Sanja Mateljak is a law graduate, who passed the bar exam and has more than 27 years of professional experience – of which more than 25 years have been achieved in public and civil service, doing the most complex tasks, including management and court representation.

 

The president of the association took for himself HRK 440, 000 from the membership fees

Zagreb police department has filed a criminal complaint against a 56-year-old man suspected of withdrawing cash from the bank account of the association where he was president, and keeping the membership fee money for himself, damaging the association by circa HRK 440,000, the PUZ said on Saturday.

It is suspected that between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2015, as president of the Zagreb association and a person authorized to dispose funds in bank accounts, he withdrew cash from the association's bank account with ATM payments totaling HRK 166,000, and there is no supporting documentation showing that he used the money for the activities of the association.

Also, it is suspected that during the same period he failed to make entire deposit payments from membership fees to the business accounts of the association in the amount of circa HRK 274,000. By doing so, he unlawfully obtained himself substantial proceeds in total of approximately

HRK 440,000 and damaged the association for that amount of money.

 

Conflict of Interest Commission opens case against Tomislav Tomašević

This information was confirmed to N1 by the commission’s head Nataša Novaković. She adds that the case was brought for "possible violation of Article 15 of the Conflict of Interest Prevention Act, that is, for appointments contrary to official procedure".

According to the aforementioned Article 15: "Members of administrative bodies and supervisory boards of companies in which local or regional self-government units have shares or ownership (capital of the company) are proposed to the general assembly or the assembly of the company by the representative body of the local unit and the unit of regional self-government".

 

Judges accused of corruption by Zdravko Mamić arrested

On June 9, 2021, an arrest operation began in Osijek for judges related to the case of Zdravko Mamić, who accused them of corruption. Three judges, Darko Krušlin, Zvonko Vekić and Ante Kvesić, as well as businessman Drago Tadić, were detained.

They are charged with most of what Mamić wrote about on Facebook, and the total figure used for their bribes is about 400,000 euros.

Mamić provided USKOK with a USB stick containing accusations against judges in October, and on March 16th, a day after the Supreme Court upheld his first-instance conviction with a sentence of six and a half years in prison, he held a press conference in Mostar and accused Supreme Court President Đuro Sessa, Osijek judges Vekić and Krušlin of corruption and bribery, while he called court president Zvonko Vrban "a criminal who will eventually be impeached".

He claimed that judge Vekić extorted money and asked of him to be appointed as president of the Osijek court – Mamić had to pay him about 500,000 euros in bribes, which he was to then share with Krušlin and Ante Kvesić, for which, as he claims, evidence can be provided.

Mamić claimed he bribed Vekić and Kvesić to drop the charges against him and to restore his 1 million-euro bail. He also stated that he never gave Krušlin money directly, but that he gave it to Vekić, who claimed that the money was partly intended for Krušlin as well.

In addition, Mamić claimed that he met several times with Vekić in Bosnia and Herzegovina and that he once met with Kvesić at the Park Hotel in Široki Brijeg where they agreed on Vekić and Kvesić dropping the indictment against him.

Mamić’s accusations were quite vivid. He alleged that he bought judge Vekić Louis Vuitton shoes in Dubai. There, Mamić claimed, he took Vekić, his friend Nataša and her daughter. In fact, judge Vekić was arrested right in the apartment of his friend Nataša. Mamić also published the receipts from their infringing trip to Dubai...

 

The head of the Slavonian Heart Tovarnik association spent money intended for the family whose house was damaged in an earthquake

The head of the charity from Tovarnik spent the money, as he says: ‘’At the beginning of the launch of the action, they did not tell us that we had to give this money to others. Then I went crazy and refused to give money to anyone, so I spent it for the purposes it was not intended for’’, says the head of the Slavonian Heart Tovarnik Association, revealing where the money went: ‘’On gambling, drugs and who*es!'’ He is aware, he says, that he has committed a crime and is ready to face legal action, and reveals the reason he spent the money: ‘’I was frustrated! I'm ashamed, but I've proven that those who play county gods are not almighty, after all!’’.

 

Arrests in the City Housing and Utility department

Kum-Grading owner Mario Jurinić, who was arrested in a bid rigging affair for the building maintenance works in Zagreb, admitted to investigators that he gave bribes to the suspected head at the city's GSKG, Neven Blažević.

In addition to Jurinić, according to investigators, Blažević also received bribes from Davor Režek, owner of Skela construction, and Slaviša Veljković, owner of the construction company Exact. Following his arrest Thursday morning, Jurinić, whose company has been working with GSKG for years, confirmed at USKOK headquarters that Neven Blažević had asked of him for 10% of every job contract with the City.

In total, since the beginning of 2020, Blažević has provided Jurinić's firm with just over HRK 800,000 worth of works, according to the documentation found in the finish of this anti-corruption action.

 

State-owned company pays its director, a powerful HDZ member, his PhD cost of HRK 102,000

One of the founders of the Split HDZ and director of the state-owned company Plovput, Mate Perišić, was one of the first HDZ members from Dalmatia to earn a PhD from the Faculty of Economics in Osijek.

This happened in 2011, and the cost of the doctorate in the amount of HRK 102,000 was paid to him by the company Plovput. Back in 2008, the supervisory board of the company, which is in charge of "maintaining maritime routes and radio service on these routes", approved the financing of his tuition in 2008. Mate Perišić took over as director of the state-owned company Plovput the same year, in 2008.

 

The EU claims that HDZ tycoon cheated with funds, they're asking the State's Attorney Office to prosecute him

In its latest report, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) published details of fraud with EU funds allocation in Croatia. One of the cases has been linked to a winery built with European money, and the company that has been carrying out the work is owned by the winemaker's son.

Such a conflict of interest is not allowed under either Croatian or European rules, so OLAF requests for just over 1.3 million euros to be returned to the EU fund. The Croatian Prosecutor's Office has been recommended to further prosecute the winemaker and his contractor.

According to Telegram’s unconfirmed reports this case is against Galić Winery, owned by one of the richest Croats, Josip Galić. He is a tycoon with close ties to HDZ about whom Telegram has often written about in the past. It was discovered, for instance, that Galić received HRK 7 million from a controversial government project to save Slavonia, but he used this money to renovate his hotel on Rab. Telegram also wrote about Galić's son, Ino Galić, who was recently convicted at first instance on suspicion of involvement in rigging public affairs jobs.

 

Arrests in Zagreb

On June 30, 2021, a large-scale action was launched by USKOK and Zagreb police department. The action consisted of three parts, all of which are related to investigating several corruptive dealings. One part of the investigation is related to obtaining elite locations on Zagreb's Advent, the other for bribes, and the third for rigging tenders for the director of the Children’s Hospital Srebrnjak. A series of arrests continue and final outcome of the situation remains to be seen.