Former government minister, Gabrijela Zalac, and the head of the state's finance and contracting agency SAFU, Tomislav Petric, along with two other persons have been arrested on Wednesday in an ongoing corruption investigation by the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) in Croatia.

Hina did not disclose the location of the arrests.

EPPO Croatia said it was urgently collecting evidence regarding four persons in cooperation with the police anti-corruption office PNUSKOK. The four are suspected of crimes committed in the ministry and SAFU related to the public procurement of an information system.

The scandal, dubbed by the local media Software Affair, involves the 16.2 million kuna (€2.1m) procurement for a software program awarded to a company called Ampelos by the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds, during the time when Zalac ran the ministry. Zalac served in the cabinet of current Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, from October 2016 to July 2019.

Ampelos, based in the town of Podstrana near Split, was led by people who local media alleged were close associates of Zalac, and the company was the sole bidder in the tender published in 2018.

After they are questioned, EPPO Croatia said, it will decide on further action and until then “no further details would be provided.” The Police Directorate said the criminal investigation also included “several businesses in Zagreb, Split-Dalmatia County, and Vukovar-Srijem County.”

After the investigation, the police will press charges against the suspects with EPPO Croatia, the Police Directorate added. Three weeks ago, acting on EPPO’s orders, police conducted several searches in the ministry and seized documents relating to the Ampelos job.

(€1 = 7.52 kuna)