INA files

SDP MP says his party doesn't want INA to become another Pliva

25.03.2010 u 12:00

Bionic
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Gordan Maras of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) presented in parliament on Thursday a motion by his party to set up a commission of inquiry to investigate circumstances regarding the conclusion of an amended agreement between the Croatian government and the Hungarian oil company MOL in 2009, saying that the SDP did not want the Croatian oil company INA "to become another Pliva, even though judging by all accounts, that is about to happen."

Maras accepted on the SDP's behalf a motion by the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) that the scope of work of the commission be expanded to include the period from 2002, when the privatisation of the Croatian oil company started, saying that Croatian citizens had the right to know if public interests had been protected in the privatisation process.

The SDP's main objection refers to the insufficient transparency of INA's privatisation and the party believes that the commission of inquiry should establish all facts related to the deal with MOL.

Maras said the commission's main task would be to establish if in the amended agreement with MOL of 2009 facts relevant for national interests had been covered up.

Under the amended agreement, MOL acquired a stake of 47.1 percent in INA, only 2.3 percent more than the stake retained by the Croatian government, however, the Hungarian company has such management rights as if it were INA's 100-percent owner, said Maras.

The commission of inquiry is expected to establish if state property was adequately protected through INA shares and if members of the commission appointed by the Croatian government to negotiate with MOL amendments to the agreement had worked in the interest of Croatian citizens and protection of state property, said Maras.

The SDP also wants to know who the commission's members were, if the commission had misled the public by covering up possible wrongdoing, if anyone had been favoured, why the process of INA's privatisation did not involve any other interested party, why the government decided to take over INA's gas business, and why it bought the gas storage facility Okoli with gas in it.

Maras believes that the government had no reason to take over INA's gas business because by doing so it also took over liabilities of more than four billion kuna.

The commission of inquiry is also expected to establish why in the last six years INA has not been developing in line with the dynamics defined in the initial agreement with MOL, Maras said.

"INA today is not a company it could have been. In the last six years the government could and should have controlled developments," Maras said, adding that INA would eventually retain only oil wholesale business, selling imported petrol instead of petrol produced by domestic refineries.