The Country Court in Zagreb issued two convictions, by which two accused persons have been found guilty of unlawful favouritism and aiding the attempted abuse of function and authority.
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In this investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Zagreb, in total 10 Croatian citizens were indicted, out of which five have been convicted so far.
The EPPO has first reported about this investigation of passive and active corruption in May this year and later on in September when the first suspects were convicted.
The convictions have found that both accused persons were adjusting the Procurement Documentation in public procurement procedures.
Between 2018 and 2021, they changed the technical capacity requirements, bid evaluation, and scoring criteria to secure the assignment of several projects co-financed by the European Union’s Cohesion Fund and the European Regional Development Fund to one company.
The first convict was sentenced to 11 months imprisonment, exchanged for community service, as well as a fine of €26 700 (HRK 200,000.00).
The other convicted person was sentenced to 11 months imprisonment, exchanged for community service, as well as a fine of €13 400 (HRK 100,000.00).
Both verdicts were the result of plea bargains, as the two accused pleaded guilty to all charges.
One of the two convicted persons was adjusting documents pertaining to two projects: the first project (Construction of a recycling yard and procurement of equipment) whose value was HRK 5,401,800.00, out of which €562 000 (HRK 4,219,433.22) were financed by the European Union’s Cohesion Fund.
The second project (BIOSOL - Construction of a solar plant) was worth €547 000 (HRK 4,100,000.00), of which 85% were financed from the European Regional Development Fund.
The first project was eventually assigned to a certain company, whose owner gave a €15 000 (HRK 100,000.00) bribe to the Mayor of Nova Gradiška, as a reward for the project.
Because of the described accused person's actions, the damage inflicted to the European Cohesion Fund amounted to at least €53 000 (HRK 398,886.04), while the damage inflicted to the City of Nova Gradiška amounted to at least €32 500 (HRK 243,339.11).
As regards the second project, although all necessary steps were taken to make the Decision to select that company, a decision to that effect was not made due to the arrest of all involved accused persons.
The other convicted person was taking actions to adjust the documentation with respect to one project (“Design and reconstruction of the wastewater treatment plant Velika Goricaâ€) and the construction of the supervisory management system worth €13 000 (HRK 97,365,000.00), out of which 67.34% were financed by the European Union Cohesion Fund.
Although all necessary steps were taken to make the Decision to select that company, and despite the fact that the Public Procurement Documentation was prepared in such a way as to guarantee advantage to that company, such a decision was hindered thanks to the arrest of all involved accused persons. ■