Head of the Conflict of Interest Commission Natasa Novakovic said on Friday that a case has been opened against Economy Minister Tomislav Coric who was a visitor to Dragan Kovacevic's private club when he appointed Kovacevic as CEO at the Janaf oil pipeline company.

“The commission opened the case against Tomislav Coric on its own initiative because he was a guest in Kovacevic’s club and because he also chaired a commission that interviewed Kovacevic in a public tender process and recommended to the government that he be appointed a member of the board,” Novakovic told Hina.

“We will request additional documentation in this case because we have another case in relation to Janaf and the employment of (Vladislav) Veselica. Coric was in the selection committee that decided on candidates for Janaf,” added Novakovic.

She confirmed that cases had been launched against ministers Coric, Butkovic, Aladrovic, as well as President Milanovic and Chief-of-Staff of the Armed Forces Robert Hranj in connection with their frequenting Kovacevic’s club.

The GONG election monitoring NGO reported the ministers because by visiting Kovacevic’s club they had breached conflict of interest rules.

Novakovic could not say when the case would be examined because it was necessary to gather the relevant documentation and see in which direction the inquiry would go.

She added that a case has also been opened against former Janaf CEO Kovacevic who has been arrested, due to management rights in companies he owned because he had claimed that he had transferred these to his attorney.

Kovacevic allegedly transferred his management rights to his Zagreb attorney Robert Sostaric, who denied this to the media and informed the commission that the management rights had not been transferred to him.

Novakovic added that Kovacevic’s Declaration of Assets was currently being examined too.