ZAGREB, Nov 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Croatia’s premier on Friday sacked his health minister after the official was arrested on corruption allegations and named as a suspect in a separate EU graft probe.
Croatia has long struggled to contain rampant corruption and the health sector has been infamous for bribes paid regularly to doctors.
“This morning, former (health) minister Vili Beros and two other individuals were arrested as part of an operation” by anti-corruption officials, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told a press conference shortly after announcing the minister had been fired.
“As prime minister, I am personally appalled by the idea that anyone in the healthcare system would use their position either for personal enrichment or to favour someone else within the healthcare system.”
The announcement came as the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Zagreb said it had launched a probe into eight people, including Beros and the directors of two hospitals in the capital.
The EPPO accused the suspects of involvement in a scheme to secure “undue financial gains” and said “several relevant stakeholders”, including Beros, were alleged to have accepted bribes.
The scheme was related to the procurement of operating microscopes for a “price that was unjustifiably increased” by more than 600,000 euros (US$633,000) at the expense of Croatia’s state budget, the EPPO said.
“All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in the competent Croatian courts,” it stressed.
Meanwhile, Croatia’s state attorney general Ivan Turudic told reporters that the country’s prosecutors did not suspect Beros of receiving bribes but rather of “influence peddling.”
He also slammed the EPPO, saying the office led a “parallel investigation” that Croatian prosecutors were not informed about.
“EPPO does not adhere to the principle of loyal cooperation,” Turudic said, adding that he would decide on the jurisdiction for the case.
Earlier on Friday, local media reported that Beros had been taken into custody following a raid at his home.
The minister has denied the allegations.
“Mr Beros completely denies any criminal responsibility,” his lawyer Laura Valkovic told the media outside the minister’s home in the capital Zagreb.
Beros was appointed to the post after his predecessor Milan Kujundzic was sacked in January 2020 over his links to a case involving undeclared assets.
Earlier Friday, Croatia’s bureau for the fight against organised crime and corruption (USKOK) said authorities were making arrests and gathering evidence in Zagreb and the southern town of Skradin.
USKOK, however, did not name Beros in their statement.
The arrests concerned “several people, one of whom is a high-ranking government official, who are reasonably suspected of having committed corrupt criminal acts”, it said.
Meanwhile, the opposition said they would call for a vote of no confidence over the affair.
One of the country’s most prominent neurosurgeons from a Zagreb public hospital who also runs a private clinic was among those arrested, local media reported.
Many public hospital doctors work in parallel at private clinics, where they often channel their patients and where they can charge fees – to widespread public annoyance.
Since taking power in 2016, several ministers from the prime minister’s conservative HDZ party have stepped down amid graft allegations. — NNN-AGENCIES
