Testifying in a bribery trial of former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader on Thursday, former Croatian Privatisation Fund (HFP) director Vedran Duvnjak said that members of a commission in charge of amending the shareholders' agreement on INA between the Croatian government and the Hungarian oil company MOL did nothing after learning that a decision had been made on MOL's taking over management rights in INA without their knowledge.
Like other members of the commission, Duvnjak, too, said that the commission did not do what it had been tasked with doing. The commission held only four meetings and no minutes were taken at those meetings, and the commission's sole concrete decision was the selection of a law firm to advise commission members, Duvnjak said before the Zagreb County Court.
It transpired from Duvnjak's testimony that attorney Zoran Markovic was chosen to provide legal advice to the commission despite the fact that his fees were the highest. Markovic was later charged with Polancec and several other people with defrauding the Podravka food company of 400 million kuna.
Asked by judge Ivan Turudic why the commission did not invite bids again but accepted Markovic's offer after law firms with more favorable bids dropped out of the bidding procedure, Duvnjak said that Polancec had said that the procedure was urgent and that conditions had been met making the choice of Markovic's law firm valid.
Nevertheless, he added that Markovic later reduced his fee, but could not remember how much.
Duvnjak said that at its sessions the commission did not discuss the divestiture of INA's gas business.
Under the indictment, Sanader received from MOL executive Zsolt Hernadi 10 million euros in bribes to enable MOL to take over management rights in INA, which was later to have divested its unprofitable gas business.
The trial in the case will continue on Friday after which the court will be in recess until March.
