Croatia's Conflict of Interest Commission has yet to examine all the circumstances of the disputed donations concerning this year's election campaign of Zagreb Mayor, Tomislav Tomasevic, the commission's head, Natasa Novaković, told N1 television on Tuesday.

Two conflict of interest cases were opened against Tomasevic, and it is now up to the commission to explore the circumstances and decide whether or not to launch proceedings against the mayor.

On Monday, the commission opened a second case against Tomasevic after local media reported that one of the newly appointed members of the Srebrenjak hospital’s steering council, doctor Tomislav Lauc, had donated 10,000 kuna (€1,300) to Tomasevic’s political group before the election. In the Croatian system, management of state-run and municipal hospitals is appointed politically.

In mid-June, the commission had opened the first case against Tomasevic on suspicion of procedural error in some appointments of top officials in the Zagrebacki Holding public company, the umbrella organization which controls all the city’s utility companies.

Commenting on the latest case, Novakovic said that two of Tomasevic’s donors were reportedly appointed by his incoming administration to the hospital’s steering council.

“This is what we have to investigate,” Novakovic said, adding that the commission now “need to establish whether the donation was connected with the subsequent appointment and business relations.”

Tomasevic, an activist-turned-politician from a small green-left coalition, won the local election in May, sweeping aside candidates from the country’s two major parties SDP and HDZ, as well as members of the populist party led by the late mayor, Milan Bandic, on a platform pledging more transparency and fiscal responsibility in running the city.

Bandic, initially a member of SDP, had ruled the city for nearly two decades, in a reign marred by controversy and allegations of corruption, before dying suddenly of a heart attack in late February, only three months before he was about to run for his seventh term.

(€1 = 7.49 kuna)