At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Zagreb, a former Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Culture and Media, currently Chief Conservator at the Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of corruption, in an investigation into the Faculty of Geodesy of the University of Zagreb. The former dean of the Faculty of Geodesy Almin Dapo and a former professor at the same faculty, Bosko Pribicevic, were also arrested.

The facts date back to the time of the earthquake that struck Zagreb on 22 March 2020, causing serious damage to cultural heritage buildings. The then Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Culture and Media was appointed team leader of a survey to identify the buildings damaged by the tremor, which involved the three-dimensional documentation of the destruction. 

According to the investigation, the former Deputy Minister agreed with the dean of the Faculty of Geodesy to entrust these documentation tasks to the Faculty, in return for a monetary reward. It is understood that he, as a public official of the Ministry of Culture and Media, had prior knowledge that the Faculty did not have sufficient trained staff or equipment to perform such tasks, and that they would hire a company to perform them. Based on the evidence, that company was controlled by the dean and the professor, who were the true beneficiaries of the arrangement.

False reports

It is understood that, in agreement with the former Deputy Minister, the Faculty of Geodesy issued invoices to the Ministry of Culture and Media at a much higher price than the price at which the same work would have been performed by companies with the necessary staff and equipment. The investigation also showed that the former Deputy Minister certified, without carrying out adequate checks, the reports on the completed tasks submitted by the dean, on behalf of the Faculty. Based on the evidence, those reports falsely claimed that certain buildings had been scanned, or listed buildings that had already been paid for in earlier reports. 

As a result, based on three reports thus approved, payment was made by the Ministry of Culture and Media to the Faculty of Geodesy to the amount of over €2.5 million.

In 2021, as part of that €2.5 million, around €800 000 was charged to the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF), and afterwards, due to the failure to have carried out an appropriate public procurement procedure, on 31 December 2023, this amount was instead charged to the State Budget of the Republic of Croatia.

The former Deputy Minister also approved the payment of a fourth report submitted by the dean, to the amount of €3.2 million, allegedly without adequate checks. However, this payment was not executed, as civil servants at the Ministry of Culture and Media found out that this report included buildings that had previously been submitted.

Damage of over €1 million to the State Budget

According to the investigation, the dean and the professor used part of the funds for their own benefit, obtaining undue pecuniary gain for themselves and others, to the amount of at least €384 000. They allegedly paid the then Deputy Minister a total of €39 000 and gave him an Apple Watch, worth around €370, as bribes.

It is estimated that the overpayment for the work caused a damage of over €1 million to the State Budget of the Republic of Croatia, on account of the inflated prices. Due to the poor work performed and, in some cases, the absence of three-dimensional scans, the tasks had to be performed again by other companies, which led to further costs. For this reason, an additional €31 681.39 had to be paid, causing damage to the EU Solidarity Fund, which financed these additional works, to the amount of €17 699.70, and to the State Budget of the Republic of Croatia, to the amount of €13 981.68.

Thursday’s arrests follow investigative activities conducted in cooperation with the Independent Financial Investigation Sector of the Croatian Ministry of Finance’s Tax Administration and the National Police Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (PNUSKOK), which had led to searches at the Ministry of Culture and Media on 14 February 2024, and to previous arrests on 8 November 2023.