Commenting on a corruption scandal involving former Regional Development and EU Funds Minister, Gabrijela Zalac, the incumbent minister Natasa Tramisak said on Tuesday she has no information on the course of the investigation in the case.

Zalac was recently arrested in an operation initiated by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office on the suspicion that she awarded to her friend an overpaid job of procuring software for her ministry, which was paid for mostly with EU money.

Asked at what moment she had contacted the USKOK anti-corruption office, Tramisak said that at the handover of duties by her predecessor Marko Pavic, she had been told that the State Attorney’s Office and USKOK were conducting certain preliminary investigations.

“This was followed by certain notifications to the Ministry, which cooperated with the state institutions and made certain documents available at their request,” she said, adding that she did not know the content of the documents in question nor did she research them.

Asked if prosecutorial authorities had contacted her with any feedback, Tramisak said that her ministry did not have any such information and should also not have it.

Asked if she believed that State Attorney Zlata Hrvoj-Sipek should stay in office, Tramisak said she was not the person that question should be put to.

The minister said that her ministry continued to do its primary job of EU funds absorption competently and professionally, pointing to an increase in rate of utilisation of EU funds.