A former accountant in the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Marica Glavas, told the Zagreb County Court on Tuesday that she had carried out all tasks following instructions from the then HDZ Secretary-General Ivan Jarnjak and his successor Branko Bacic and not from party president Ivo Sanader or his successor Jadranka Kosor.
Glavas replaced Branka Pavosevic, one of the defendants in the Fimi Media case, in the position of the HDZ accountant in 2008. Apart from Pavosevic, the other defendants in the case are the former HDZ chief Sanader, the HDZ, the first political party in Croatia accused of corruption, former HDZ treasurer Mladen Barisic, Sanader's spokesman Ratko Macek and Fimi Media owner Nevenka Jurak.
All but Sanader and Macek pleaded guilty to siphoning about HRK 70 million from state institutions and companies for the HDZ's slush fund. The party's counsel claims the slush fund was created without the knowledge of the party's bodies.
The witness said that she had arrived from Split to Zagreb to put the HDZ finances in order, at the invitation from Sanader, and added that upon her arrival in Zagreb she had talked with Sanader only twice.
According to the witness, Sanader found it very important that the party's finances were orderly as it had been the HDZ that sponsored the law on financing political parties.
Therefore she cooperated with the HDZ secretaries-general Jarnjak and later Bacic on a regular basis who, she said ,were her superiors and responsible for her work.
She also mentioned that she had worked with Jarnjak on the purchase of the luxury BMW vehicle for Sanader and that Bacic told her to deposit to the party's safe two million kuna and 300,000 euros which the former HDZ treasurer Barisic brought to the party's offices in January 2010 after Sanader's withdrawal from political positions.
The witness said that she had not cooperated with Barisic, who admitted to the existence of the HDZ slush fund.
She also refuted Barisic's statements from the investigation that she had used to call him to ask about when she would get money from the slush fund for her salary and rent allowance as she had been living in a leased property in Zagreb.
The witness said that she had received a monthly salary of 15,000 kuna in a legal manner and that she paid the rent on her own.
She said that upon her arrival in the HDZ headquarters she had found many irregularities in the HDZ finances which was why the party was fined HRK400,000.
The trial resumes on 16 July when the former health minister and HDZ high-ranking official Darko Milinovic is expected to take the witness stand.
