Former Defence Minister Berislav Roncevic said in his defence at the Zagreb County Court on Wednesday that he had decided on the disputed purchase of military trucks in 2004 based on documents presented to him by his closest aides, adding that he did not want Croatia to drop out of the race for NATO membership.
"I did not want to be disgraced by Croatia disrupting the NATO accession process during my term in office, because the assessment of Croatia meeting the assumed partnership goals was poor," Roncevic said at his trial, stressing that the entire procurement procedure had been conducted in accordance with the law and within the budget.
Roncevic thereby rejected the charges that he and his assistant, Ivo Bacic, had defrauded the state budget of HRK 10.2 million by making a direct deal with the Iveco company, which offered a higher price for its vehicles than the other bidder, MAN. Transport experts previously told the court that the cheaper MAN trucks were in some aspects of a better quality than the more expensive ones offered by Iveco.
Roncevic repeated on Wednesday that only the Iveco trucks met the NATO standards and that he could not assume responsibility for the possibility of Croatian troops getting killed in peace missions, such as the one in Afghanistan, on account of poor equipment.
Roncevic said that State Secretary Mate Raboteg had warned him that Croatia was lagging in meeting NATO's partnership goals, while Army Chief of Staff Josip Lucic had complained about the equipment of the Croatian Army.
Roncevic said that he had opted for a direct deal, because his aides had told him that it was in accordance with the law, because otherwise it would not be possible to use the budget money the following year.
