The anti-corruption agency USKOK on Friday afternoon opened an investigation into Bojan Milkovic, CEO of the INA oil company, who is suspected of having taken bribes at the time when he was a sector director at the Crosco company and later as Crosco's Management Board chairman, in collusion with a former platform overhaul project manager, Miroslav Pacak.
Crosco is an on- and offshore drilling and well services contractor which is part of INA Group.
In a statement on its web site, USKOK revealed only the initials and age of the suspects, without stating the name of the company.
Milkovic and Pacak are suspected of having solicited bribes, in the period from 2002 to 2009, in exchange for awarding job contracts to other companies. The bribes ranged from 5 to 10 percent of the net contract value.
The persons who were asked to give bribes did so in order to win tenders which they needed so their businesses could continue operating, USKOK said.
USKOK said that it would ask the judge in charge of the case to set detention for the two suspects who are charged with bribe taking and document forgery.
Earlier in the day, INA confirmed that an investigation had been carried out in its offices as part of ongoing criminal proceedings against Milkovic. According to unofficial sources, Milkovic was arrested today.
INA said the ongoing criminal proceedings were not related to INA's operations or Milkovic's position as INA Chief Executive Officer. Milkovic was appointed to that post in June 2009.
The media previously mentioned Milkovic's name in connection with a controversial renovation of the US oil platform Key Manhattan at the time when he was Crosco Management Board chairman. The project was reportedly entrusted to Pacak, who at the time was a Crosco employee and co-owner of the RIG-TSG company from Vukovar, which carried out the renovation work.
