PM Plenkovic said that after a scandal with per diems was uncovered a month ago involving three advisers to former PM Zoran Milanovic, he asked relevant services in the government to check other travel expense claims as well.
Plenkovic said the information he received pointed to many other cases of irregularities in submitting expenses invoices in the past, including after the term of former PM Milanovic. Asked if he was referring to the previous Tihomir Oreskovic cabinet, he said an "investigation will show everything."
Plenkovic said he informed Cvitan a few days ago about new information and suspicion that, aside from the three known cases, other crimes were committed too. He said he asked Cvitan to take over the case and examine all travel expenses issued in the government in recent years.
Cvitan told the same press conference there was suspicion that crimes were committed, potentially abuse of office and official ID forgery.
Milanovic's former chief of staff Tomislav Saucha was arrested on February 10 for the payment of per diems for fictitious trips for three advisers to the former PM. He has since been released from custody.
The anti-corruption office (USKOK) suspects Saucha, now an MP, of defrauding the state budget of over HRK 540,000 from November 2013 to January 2016 by forging 117 travel orders for Milanovic's advisers Slavko Goldstein, Sinisa Petrovic and Neven Budak, who told investigators they had never been on those trips nor received per diems for them.
Text: Hina