ZAGREB, 27 Jan 2022 - Economy Minister Tomislav Ćorić said on Thursday that Mayor Tomislav Tomašević and his team were responsible for the markedly higher corporate gas bills in Zagreb, and not HDZ personnel, because they failed to procure it at better prices.
Tomašević said earlier the former director of the City Gasworks' Supply division, Igor Pirija, who ran the division until last October, was responsible and that he was HDZ personnel, claiming that he did not buy gas at cheaper prices on time and that Zagreb businesses were in trouble because of him.
Ćorić said Tomašević should do his job and that Pirija was not in the HDZ.
Alluding to Tomašević's past as an activist, he said, "That phase is over, now it's necessary to run Croatia's largest city."
"At one time, Holding and the Gasworks were taken over by the new city administration. (Nikola) Vuković became the head of Holding for a few months. He could have procured the gas whenever he wanted. That procurement would have cost three and a half to four times less than it costs today," Ćorić said, referring to the Zagreb Holding multi-utility conglomerate.
He added that Vuković and his successors were appointed by Tomašević.
The minister said the mayor and his team should assume responsibility for the higher price, find the money, buy enough gas, whatever the cost, and honour the contracts with corporate clients.
He said Tomašević, Zagreb Holding and the team running the City Gasworks assumed responsibility for the Gasworks when they assumed responsibility for the city last May, regardless of who was director until one, two or five months ago.
"A new president of Holding's management board was appointed in June. Talks probably began then with the companies owned by Holding. Someone should have said then that the City Gasworks was short of 600 gigawatt hours of gas to meet corporate needs until the end of April," Ćorić said.
He reiterated that the price of gas at that time was several times lower than today and that the mayor and his team should have acted.
City Assembly vice president Mislav Herman (HDZ) told Tomašević to stop using the City Gasworks's previous management board as an excuse because he had enough time to buy gas at far lower prices.
He said that since Tomašević came to power, there was enough time to contract a new gas price, claiming that on 15 August last year the price of gas was about five times lower than today.
"Instead of making illegal appointments in Zagreb Holding during the summer, he could have been buying gas at then far lower prices so that our corporate clients' bills for December and the period ahead were far lower," Herman said.
He, too, said Pirija was not an HDZ member.
