ZAGREB, 26 April, 2021 - Social Policy Minister Josip Aladrović said on Monday he supports a ministry report that identified omissions by welfare services in Nova Gradiška in the case of a two-and-a-half-year-old girl who died as a consequence of domestic violence, a report which contradicts expert reports.

The Chamber of Social Workers and Croatian Chamber of Psychologists conducted separate expert analyses of the case and concluded that the social workers and psychologists working on the case acted according to standards, while the ministry last Friday said that it would examine the findings and forward everything to the County Prosecutor in Slavonski Brod.

"We, as the ministry, support the administrative oversight findings. The oversight identified certain mistakes in procedure and the findings have been submitted to the County Prosecutor as will the results of the expert analysis. I cannot comment on who was wrong, the chamber or the ministry," said Minister Aladrović while presenting an action plan to improve the social welfare system.

He said that the ministry had immediately sent a supervision team which compiled a report that, he said, is an indicator of the efficient work of public administration and not hasty decision making. One of the reasons why the Chamber of Social Workers' report took longer was because the social worker involved in the case was COVID positive, he added.

He said the omissions identified by the ministry's supervision team were sufficient to dismiss the director of the welfare centre in Nova Gradiška. The ministry does not want to impact the chamber's findings but there isn't any third body that could determine any further procedures, he added.

"There currently isn't any legal framework on how to reconcile those two findings and conflicts," said Aladrović and added that the only thing he can do is to send all the findings to the County Prosecutor to see if there is cause for any other kind of responsibility.

Amendments to the Family Law not planned for this year

As far as amendments to the Family Law are concerned with regard to taking children from their birth parents, Aladrović said that that is a complex bill that wasn't planned in the government's legislative activities for this year and is not a priority, but "we are not unwilling to discuss the Family Law as well in the following period" because there is room for improvement.

To read more about politics in Croatia, follow our dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 6 April, 2021 - The president of the Croatian Association of Social Workers, Štefica Karačić, asked on Monday where the responsibility of Social Policy Minister Josip Aladrović was in the case of the deceased two-and-a-half-year-old girl from Nova Gradiška.

The (local welfare centre's) director was dismissed and then, in a week, it was forgotten that the centre needs other forms of help and support to work in such a complex and difficult area of activity as child protection, Karačić told the Nova TV commercial broadcaster, and she asked why the minister wouldn't also be removed, if the responsibility was hierarchical.

She told Nova TV that the minister had made the same move as the previous one, so "by dismissing the director, he thinks that he has solved all his problems in the social welfare system".

Asked what has changed in the social welfare system after several difficult cases -- of a father who threw four children from the balcony of his house on Pag island and of a beneficiary who killed two of her colleagues in Đakovo, Karačić said that nothing had changed.

"Nothing has changed, the voice of various activists who have an easier and simpler access to policy makers than experts can be heard. We are always under suspicion, we are always the ones responsible. If the director is responsible hierarchically, then I wonder -- where is the minister's responsibility," Karačić asked.

She suggested that before meeting Jelena Veljača and her colleagues from the #spasi me (Save Me) initiative tomorrow, Minister Aladrović should have a look at what she had posted on her profile regarding the social welfare system and that he keep in mind that he is also a part of that system.

Asked whether an inspection has found any irregularities in the work of the centre in Nova Gradiška, she said that she and a colleague had been in the Centre for Social Welfare in Nova Gradiška on Friday and that they had not completed the inspection yet.

"Our preliminary inspection... does not indicate there were gross omissions in the work of the centre. However, I cannot say there weren't any until the procedure is completed," she noted.

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.