Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leader Tomislav Karamarko said on Monday that Agriculture Minister Tihomir Jakovina should resign over a conflict of interest because he continued to be owner and chief executive of a firm, which is in violation of the Conflict of Interest Act.
"It seems quite unconvincing that Minister Jakovina has forgotten about this little problem for a year. Maybe he should resign to improve his image a little bit," Karamarko told reporters when asked for a comment on the fact that Jakovina was the owner and chief executive of the firm TJ-Prom which owed the state budget and the Hrvatske Vode water management company 150,000 kuna (20,000 euros).
Karamarko said it was paradoxical that the government's rating was growing even though 700 people in Croatia lost their jobs on a daily basis. "This can only happen in Croatia," he told the press at Zagreb's Mirogoj Cemetery where he attended a ceremony marking the 13th anniversary of the death of the first President of Croatia, Franjo Tudjman.
Jakovina issued a statement on Monday denying an article in the Vecernji List newspaper of Sunday which said that Jakovina's firm owed 150,000 kuna.
"I completely dismiss the allegations in the article that accuse me of being in a serious conflict of interest because there is no conflict of interest. The firm I own is not active, it has no employees and it is not, nor has it ever been, in any business relationship with the public authorities (either at state, regional or local level) or with state-owned companies. The same is also true of the time when I served as municipal head and ever since I became a member of the government," Jakovina said.
Jakovina noted that after becoming minister he duly mentioned his firm in his declaration of assets and that the transfer of management rights to a law firm in Slavonski Brod was under way, adding that this showed that he was not hiding anything or had such an intention.
"My only omission is that I did not submit the contract on the transfer of management rights to the commission, for which I apologise," the minister said.
Speaking of his firm's debts, Jakovina said that they had arisen while the firm had been active and that he had never denied them. He said that the debts would be settled when the firm was sold by his lawyer to whom the management rights were transferred.
