ZAGREB, 29 August, 2022 - The INA oil company said on Monday that its management and supervisory boards did not decide on the contracts that are being investigated by the USKOK anti-corruption office and that Damir Škugor was authorised to sign contracts worth up to €20 million, co-signed by his deputy.
"The INA Management and Supervisory Boards did not decide on the disputed contracts that are being investigated by USKOK. Damir Škugor, who is a manager three levels below the Management Board, had the authority to sign contracts worth up to €20 million, with the co-signature of his deputy. In line with his powers, Škugor signed all the contracts that are being investigated," the company said in a press release.
It adds that INA will terminate Škugor's employment and revise all existing gas sales contracts and take all possible legal steps.
"In the coming days, extraordinary sessions of the Management Board and Supervisory Board will be held. A detailed investigation of this case is already underway at INA, and as a result, additional control mechanisms will be introduced. The supply of gas to the market is not jeopardised in any way," says INA.
USKOK anti-corruption investigators and the police on Saturday arrested Damir Škugor, an executive at INA, Josip Šurjak, president of the Croatian Bar Association, Šurjak's business partner Goran Husić, with whom Šurjak co-owns the OMS Upravljanje company, Škugor's father Dane, and Marija Ratkić, Management Board president at the Plinara Istočne Slavonije gas distribution company.
They are suspected of having defrauded INA of over HRK 1 billion. The illegal gain of Škugor and his father is estimated at nearly HRK 500 million, while Husić and Šurjak are believed to have illegally gained over HRK 90 million and HRK 68.9 million respectively.
There is over HRK 200 million in illegal gain still in the bank account of the OMS Upravljanje company.
(€1 = HRK 7.5)
