The management of the Croatian oil and gas company INA on Tuesday temporarily suspended Bojan Milkovic, the chief executive director and executive director for research and production, for a period of 35 days, authorising at the same time INA Management Board chairman Zoltan Aldott to continue supervising sectors which are directly under the chief executive director, INA reported on Wednesday.
INA's corporate communications sector said Milkovic was suspended at his own request due to an investigation that was under way against him.
The term of Zelimir Sikonja as acting executive director of research and production was extended until Milkovic's suspension was over or until a further decision.
INA said the decisions were of a temporary nature and did not represent a lasting solution.
The INA Management Board on March 29 appointed Sikonja, for a period of 30 days, acting executive director of research and production, and authorised Aldott to supervise sectors directly under the company's chief executive director.
Milkovic has been in investigative custody since the end of March, when the anti-corruption investigating agency USKOK launched an investigation into him on the suspicion that he took bribes at the time when he was a sector director at the Crosco company and later as Crosco's Management Board chairman, in collusion with Miroslav Pacak, a former platform overhaul project manager at Crosco.
The two are suspected of having solicited bribes, in the period from 2002 to 2009, in exchange for awarding job contracts to other companies. The bribes ranged from 5 to 10 percent of the net contract value.
