The Croatian Parliament on Monday adopted the State Property Management Act which should ensure more efficient and transparent use of state property with a view to creating added value and increasing the economic benefits of such property.
Following a government-sponsored amendment, the governing board of the Centre for Restructuring and Sale was increased by two members. In addition to the head of the State Property Management Office, the deputy ministers of the economy, finance, transport and agriculture and trade union representatives, it will also include the Deputy Minister of Veterans' Affairs and a representative of the Croatian Employers' Association.
The amendment was opposed by the strongest opposition party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), because the governing board would include the Deputy Minister of Veterans' Affairs instead of representatives of veterans' associations. He said that if the employers and trade unions could have their representatives on the board, the veterans should also have theirs because they were entitled to shares based on their involvement in the 1991-1995 Homeland War.
The Act was carried with 81 votes in favour and 37 against.
Labour MP Branko Vuksic later told the press that this law laid the ground for the eventual sale of state property, noting that the Constitution did not provide for the sale of state property but for its use in the interest of society as a whole and not just individuals. He said that the law enabled the creation of yet another centre of power and corruption involving individuals who were not under Parliament's control.
