INA inquiry

Parliamentary commission will again summon Sanader

14.09.2010 u 20:00

Bionic
Reading

The Croatian parliament's commission investigating the privatisation of the oil company INA will once again summon former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader to testify about INA's privatisation and he is expected to be interviewed on October 12.

Commission chair Dragica Zgrebec of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) reiterated that she received a notification from the postal service saying that Sanader had not been served with the summons to testify today.

"Given media reports that Sanader could be back in Croatia in early October, I propose that we send him a new summons for October 12," Zgrebec said, and members of the commission accepted the proposal.

This afternoon the commission interviewed INA Management Board chair Zoltan Aldott, who could not say if it was true that INA had not insured a futures contract on the purchase of oil signed in 2008 for 2009.

Goran Maric of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) asked Aldott if it was true that the contract had not been insured even though INA usually insured its contracts.

Maric also said that under that contract INA bought expensive oil at the time when oil prices on international markets were dropping.

I don't know about that having happened, Aldott said, stressing that INA operated in an unpredictable industry, where prices could change up to 6-7 percent in a day.

When asked if it was true what former INA CEO Tomislav Dragicevic had stated, namely that INA's debt to the state was incurred at the government's orders and with its tacit approval, Aldott said that the debt was incurred after the outbreak of the economic crisis, when other companies in Croatia too encountered solvency problems.

The commission on Tuesday did not discuss conclusions regarding previous testimonies or the fact that incumbent Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Suker and former Deputy PM Damir Polancec gave conflicting statements on some questions regarding the first act of amendment of the Shareholders' Agreement between the government and the Hungarian MOL oil and gas group.

Zgrebec told reporters the commission would discuss the statements at a later date and would call a new session once it completed a working version of its report on INA's privatisation.