Conflict of interest procedures initiated against Plenković, Petrov and Bandić

The Conflict of Interest committee has decided to initiate procedures against Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and MOST party leader Božo Petrov for their activities during the development of the so called “Lex Agrokor” law, but not against Interior Minister Davor Božinović.

Although it was confirmed that Andrej Plenković did not personally engage attorney Boris Šavorić nor that he could have known that experts engaged in the informal Borg group as sub-contractors for Alexis Partners would have had an income, he nevertheless violated the principle of public office by not informing the public on the formation of the informal group.

“The committee has adopted a decision to initiate a procedure. We will see what will happen next. I am here to respect institutions as a citizen. I do not abuse them, as was insinuated yesterday. Nor do I abuse them in any other case. I think that it would be good for us to slowly learn that institutions have their legal authority and manner of work. I as the Prime Minister respect them,” said Prime Minister Plenković.

The committee also found that Božo Petrov, the deputy parliament speaker at the time, violated the principle of public office in terms of non-transparently choosing advisors for the Agrokor emergency management.

“I have already proved that I can fully transparently go to testify. As far as I’m concerned – it is not a problem. Evidently it was difficult for some to only initiate a procedure against Andrej Plenković so I had to be in the package,” said Petrov commenting the committee’s decision.

A procedure has also been initiated against Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić for influencing the Zagreb Holding management to hire Svetimir Marić, the brother of Minister of State Property Goran Marić.

Source: HRT