After all the entrepreneurs for whom he brokered deals with the city of Petrinja pleaded guilty, the former mayor of Petrinja, Darinko Dumbovic, did the same on Wednesday.

He agreed a relatively lenient sentence with the USKOK (Croatian Agency for Combating Corruption and Organised Crime), although he did not escape prison entirely. He also brokered some of the contracts after the earthquake in Petrinja, and most of the orders from these contracts were passed on to his son’s company.

He was sentenced to one year and seven months in prison for unlawful favouritism. However, he will only have to serve seven months, while the remaining year has been commuted to a suspended sentence with a probation period of four years. His sentence also includes just over two months spent in pre-trial detention.

In addition to the prison sentence, Dumbovic was sentenced to a fine of 20,000 euros.

Agreement with the three other contracting parties

On Wednesday, Dumbovic’s son Darko also pleaded guilty to receiving business contracts from companies to which his father illegally awarded city contracts. He was sentenced to one year and four months in prison.

He must serve six months of this in prison, while the remaining eight months were commuted to a suspended sentence with a probation period of four years.

The former mayor of Petrinja admitted that he had already planned with his son in October 2019 how he could secure him business with the city.

At that time, the Dumbovics, together with three contractors, agreed that their companies would submit bids in public tenders that were of interest to the younger Dumbovic and that, after selection, they would transfer the execution of the work to the mayor’s son’s company.

Concealing the involvement of the mayor’s son’s company

In the tendering process for the work, the bids of three other companies were initially selected in four instances, whereupon their managing directors, in consultation with the mayor, handed over the execution of the work to Darko Dumbovic’s company.

According to today’s judgements, Darko Dumbovic’s company carried out and invoiced the awarded works, while the other contractors prepared documents to conceal the involvement of the mayor’s son’s company.

In this way, Darko Dumbovic’s company secured work worth around 1.4 million euros. Most of it related to the maintenance of unclassified roads, but he also carried out most of the work on the reconstruction of the children’s sports playground – Vatrogasno – and built the platform on which temporary modular houses were erected for the people who lost their homes in the Petrinja earthquake.