Ruling HDZ party whip Branko Bacic said on Tuesday that his party supported the establishment of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the JANAF corruption case but that the anomalies it would investigate had to be precisely defined, noting that his party would soon make its position on the matter known.

“We support a commission that would help precisely determine the anomalies in a specific segment. I’m not sure that generalised questions such as those that are being raised can be answered in a good way,” Bacic told reporters ahead of a meeting of parliamentary parties making up the ruling majority.

The HDZ supports commissions discussing issues of public interest and believes that the topic for which a commission is being formed should be specified, he said.

Bacic went on to say that the commission that was being proposed by opposition parties to investigate information leaks and the functioning of state institutions in the JANAF corruption case had given itself powers of a general nature, while the Act on Commissions of Inquiry said that a commission is formed for specific issues rather than investigating anomalies in society.

He dismissed, however, a reporter’s remark that, judging by his words, the HDZ would not support the commission of inquiry for the JANAF case.

“That is not what I said, when we analyse the text of the proposal with other parties of the ruling coalition, we will define our position,” he said.

In a comment on the absence of HDZ MP Josip Djakic, who has contracted COVID-19, Bacic said: “We will vote next week regardless of whether Djakic is released from hospital or not. The ruling majority is stable,” he said.

Asked if the government ministers who had visited the club run by former JANAF oil pipeline operator CEO Dragan Kovacevic should step down, Italian minority MP and Deputy Parliament Speaker Furio Radin said that they should not resign if they went there only for a cup of coffee.