The opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) has asked parliament to form a commission of inquiry to establish the facts surrounding the signing of an amended contract between Croatian oil company INA and Hungary's MOL in 2009, assessing this deal and the government's actions concerning a contract on INA's gas business as insufficiently transparent and questionable in terms of national interests.
SDP MPs Zeljko Jovanovic, Gordan Maras and Boris Sprem told press on Monday that they formally requested the formation of the commission of inquiry on Friday, to find out if Croatian interests were protected when the contract with MOL was signed and if facts were covered up.
The three MPs said the contract gave MOL a 47.1 per cent stake in INA, only 2.3 per cent more than the stake retained by the government, and wondered how come MOL had acquired all management rights in INA.
The public has the right to ask the government to say if the government's stake was adequately protected since the management rights do not reflect the actual ownership ratio, the SDP said.
It is in public interest to establish if the commission appointed by the government to negotiate with MOL amendments to the INA-MOL contract worked in citizens' interest, who comprised the commission and if the commission deluded the public by covering up possible unlawful activities, according to the SDP.
The commission of inquiry would also establish why another company was not involved in the privatisation process, why the government decided to take on INA's gas operations and why it bought the Okoli gas storage facility and the gas in it.
The SDP also wants to know if there are other deals related to the contracts on the sale of INA shares and the separation of the gas business, if this deal favoured MOL, and if the government was possibly defrauded.
The commission of inquiry would also probe former President Stjepan Mesic's statement that former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader had told him that there was nothing contentious about the contracts and that everything had been arranged by then Economy Minister Damir Polancec.
Jovanovic said the government's deal with MOL reflected irresponsibility and lack of competence and transparency, adding the government and MOL, as strategic partners, disregarded what they had committed themselves to do, to invest in the modernisation of refineries in Rijeka and Sisak, taking care only about imports instead.
Maras called on MPs to vote for the establishment of the commission of inquiry, saying that if the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) was against, it meant that what really happened in the deal was being hidden from the public.
