The INA supervisory board chairman Davor Stern told the Zagreb County Court on Thursday that Croatian representatives sitting on the company's managing and supervisory boards had no influence on the work of that leading Croatian oil and gas group.
Stern was testifying at the trial of former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader who is charged with allegedly taking 10 million euros in reward for enabling Hungary's MOL to have a dominant position in INA through the amendment of the 2009 shareholders' agreement.
"The shareholders' agreement makes it impossible for the supervisory board to supervise INA's work," Stern told the court.
He went on to say the company was not being run by the management board, which includes Croatian representatives.
"In our opinion the managing board should manage the company, and one more reason for that is the fact that the Croatian representatives on the board are experts in that area," the witness said.
According to Stern, since MOL attained a dominant position in INA, the committee of executive directors has been running the company by making decisions in closed sessions.
The claims that INA was run by the executive directors and the managing board chairman appointed by the Hungarian company were also made by three other Croatian representatives in INA during their testimonies earlier in the trial. They said that MOL had much large influence than was its stock in INA.
Stern said that as soon as he was appointed by the previous government of Prime Minsiter Jadranka Kosor as chairman of the INA supervisory board, he launched the procedure to amend the contentious shareholders' agreement.
The existing agreement provides for a possibility of its review two years upon its conclusion, he added.
According to Stern, his initiative to draw up a negotiating platform was accepted by the Hungarian representatives, however the parliamentary elections in Croatia suspended the entire process.
Stern also said that the planned divestiture of the gas business from INA, which the Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime said was Sanader's attempt to curry favour with MOL, would have caused annual losses between one billion and one and a half billion kuna for the Croatian state.
Stern also testified that the 2009 agreement enabled MOL to treat INA as one of its companies.
The witness criticised MOL for having neglected INA and failing to make investments.
Stern accused the Hungarians of having clandestinely planned to close down the oil refinery in Sisak.
