Former Secretary General of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Branko Bacic, said at the Fimi Media trial on Monday that at the time the indictee, former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, was at the helm of the party, the HDZ Presidency did not discuss the HDZ's material and financial business activities, although it was obliged to do so under the party statute.
At sessions, the HDZ Presidency members made decisions on donations made by some associations or clubs, but the Presidency had never made a decision on acts such as the final statement of accounts and the financial plan," said Bacic who has also been a member of the HDZ head committee and the the HDZ Presidency.
Bacic said that regardless of the fact that the party Presidency did not make decisions on that, the HDZ had been filing final statements of accounts and meeting its obligations towards the Tax Administration, the Financial Agency and other institutions. "Before that, the documents were presented to the party president who, given his authority, had to be informed of that," Bacic said.
He said that in October 2010 he gave two million kuna and 300,000 euros to the State Prosecutor's Office, deposited by former party treasurer Mladen Barisic. At the start of the trial, Barisic admitted to siphoning money from state-owned companies and filling the HDZ's slush fund with state money.
Bacic said that before being relieved as party treasurer, Barisic informed Sanader's successor Jadranka Kosor of the money which he said had been donated to the party. "I told him to bring the money to the party headquarters and I told him to go to the accountant Marija Glavas who then deposited the money to the party's safety box. After that, we did not deal with that money," Bacic said.
However, after the media started writing about Barisic and Fimi Media, Jadranka Kosor informed Chief State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic of the money deposited in the party's safety box and Bacic took the said two million kuna and 300,000 euros to the Chief State Prosecutor's Office.
The party did not manage or spend that money as, according to Bacic, in 2010 its income exceeded its expenses by 13 million kuna. The money, however, was not entered in the party books.
Answering to questions by Sanader's defence, Bacic said that documents which the party without the knowledge of its presidency submitted to state institutions were legal.
He recalled that after leaving the post of prime minister Sanader, as HDZ honorary president, requested that party members caught up in the HEP and Podravka scandals be protected.
Although he did not ask that anything be covered up, he did advocate that they be provided with assistance, Bacic said.
The defendants in the Fimi Media case, including the HDZ party as a legal entity, are charged with siphoning some 70 million kuna (9.3 million euros) from state companies and institutions into the HDZ's slush fund via Fimi Media, after which this case was named.
