The Municipal Court in the town of Kutina has ruled that whistleblower Adrijana Cvrtila, who publicly pointed out politically motivated staff appointments, should be reinstated as director of the Kutina utility company Eko Moslavina.

The court upheld Cvrtila’s arguments based on whistleblowing legislation, which states that whistleblowers must not be subject to retaliation, pay cuts or dismissal.

The latest ruling is the result of a retrial after the local court rejected Cvrtila’s arguments in the first hearing and did not recognise her status as a whistleblower.

Cvrtila appealed against this ruling, whereupon the Zagreb District Court ruled in her favour and ordered the retrial.

On 12 July, the Kutina Municipal Court handed down a judgement on Cvrtila’s reinstatement.

Cvrtila, who was the director of the utility company Eko Moslavina in Kutina, went public in 2021 and claimed that Mayor Zlatko Babic (then a member of the HDZ party) and the Chairman of the City Council Davor Kljakic (HSLS party) put pressure on her to hire party members and relatives of council members or increase their salaries so that these council members would vote in favour of the city budget and its revision.

Pressure to hire certain party members

She reported both cases to the USKOK Anti-Corruption Bureau. Babic denied the allegations of political recruitment and claimed that the attacks on him were fabricated. In September 2021, Babic announced his resignation from the HDZ because he did not want the party to “be “dragged through the mud”.

USKOK launched an investigation against Babic, the former chairman of the Kutina City Council, Kljakic from HSLS, independent councillor Drazen Kinderman and former councillor Darko Kousek after Cvrtila, as director of Eko Moslavina, went public with information, that Babic and Kljakic were exerting pressure to hire or increase the salaries of certain party members and relatives of councillors in Eko Moslavina, all in order to secure the votes of these councillors for the budget and budget revision.

In the meantime, Babic dismissed Cvrtila from the post of director as a retaliatory measure.