The ruling coalition in the Croatian parliament on Tuesday morning rejected the first of about 50 amendments to the draft 2013 budget put forward by the opposition, adopting government-sponsored amendments.
The government proposed increasing by a total of 115 million kuna the budgets of the Croatian Mine Action Centre, the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport and reducing by the same amount allocations to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Regional Development and the Ministry of Health.
The budget of the Croatian Mine Action Centre will thus be increased by 30 million kuna for mine removal projects, the Ministry of Construction will receive an additional 62 million kuna for local and regional government employees, while the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport will be given an extra 23 million for public-private partnership projects in Varadzin and Koprivnica-Krizevci counties.
Ivan Suker of the strongest opposition party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), said that the government's amendments showed all the poor aspects of the budget, adding that the purpose of the amendments was to "patch up the holes" which the government had not recognised when preparing the budget, especially with regard to allocations for local government units.
He urged the government to also ensure additional funding for pre-school education, which is covered by local government units, and for mine removal operations.
