The government on Thursday accepted Assistant War Veterans Minister Nenad Krizic’s resignation, after the Telegram portal had published a story earlier this week saying that Krizic had suggested a war veteran to “break into an empty flat” in order to resolve his housing problem.
Krizic offered his resignation after the Telegram portal had on Monday published a story showing text messages exchanged between Krizic and the 49-year-old veteran Mario Vrbanic, in which Krizic suggested to Vrbanic, who had asked him for help in finding a home, to “break into a flat,” adding the ministry would “look the other way.”
Vrbanic, who lives in a rented flat in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar and claims he has no fixed income, told Telegram he had spoken with Krizic on a number of occasions, and several times with War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved as well, asking them for help in finding a home.
Registered war veterans in Croatia are entitled to subsidised housing, for which they apply either to the War Veterans’ Ministry or the manager of the real estate in question.
Vrbanic claimed Krizic had told him he would talk to the state secretary at the central office for reconstruction and housing, Nikola Mazar, and instruct him to “look the other way a little” and let Vrbanic break into one of the empty flats in the town.
A few days after the scandal had broken out, the ministry stated that data from the war veterans registry showed that Vrbanic was never actually granted war veteran status. The registry is not publicly available.
“I know about the issue, I requested a complete report on the correspondence. The person in question is not a war veteran,” Medved said on Wednesday, adding all the details would be looked into in order to determine whether any oversights happened.
Attorney’s Office in Vukovar confirmed on Wednesday the police were looking into Vrbanic’s claims.
The Ministry had initially said “they saw no reason to dismiss Krizic”, but on Thursday Minister Medved said Krizic had committed an oversight in corresponding with Vrbanic “with the best intentions” and that he tendered his resignation, which the government accepted.
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