Croatia's Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Radimir Cacic has said that it is the government's duty to cover losses which the Brodosplit shipyard incurred in the past while, the duty of the probable new owner of the dock, Tomislav Debeljak is to put the company on the sound footing.
The state has planned to invest an enormous amount of HRK 1.263 billion to cover the losses and rectify the consequences of the bad and irrational business practices from the past and ensure severance packages to laid-off workers and Debeljak has nothing to do with it, Cacic said on Thursday in a comment on Debeljak's statements via Facebook about the announced layoffs in the Split dock after he takes over Brodosplit.
"The burden of the past will be tackled by the government, and he (Debeljak) is supposed to conduct a new business practice and put the shipyard on the sound footing and render it competitive on the market," Cacic told reporters after he visited graves of Croatian People's Party (HNS) officials, buried in Mirogoj, Zagreb.
Asked about the latest government decision on the borrowing by the national power company HEP, Cacic said that this was not new borrowing but the decision of 31 October approved the extension of the existing agreement on the revolving credit.
Cacic accused the former government of syphoning the funds from HEP to stabilise the current account, thereby making HEP weaker. He said the current government was taking steps to stabilise the finances of the national power provider.
