EU prosecutors (EPPO) have indicted former Croatian government minister, Gabrijela Zalac, the former head of the state's finance and contracting agency Safu, Tomislav Petric, and businessmen Marko Jukic and Mladen Simunc for taking part in a scheme which allegedly illegally siphoned more than €1.3 million of EU funding.

“Without revealing the identities of the accused, the EPPO said on Thursday the former minister of regional development and EU funds was accused of influence peddling and abuse of office and authority,” state news platform Hina reported on, without explaining how they confirmed the identities of the accused.

“Jukic, Šimunc, and Petric are accused of abuse of office and powers, while Jukic’s and Simunc’s companies Ampelos and Micro Project are accused of incitement to that crime,” Hina added.

During 2017 and 2018, Zalac is suspected of issuing a tender for an information system for “strategic planning and development management,” and then rigged the tender to the benefit of the companies run by Jukic and Simunc. Zalac is also accused of inflating the estimated value of the contract.

Having conducted an open public procurement procedure, Zalac’s ministry signed a purchase contract for the information system with the companies linked to Jukic and Simunc, who were business partners, the EPPO said, adding that the price, by Zalac’s decision, was unrealistically set at €1.73 million, nearly five times higher than the reasonable value of the job, estimated at around €360,000.

The EU budget was defrauded of at least €1 million and the Croatian state budget of almost €300,000.