The Croatian government on Tuesday proposed the appointment of Marin Zovko, currently a member of the Management Board of the Plinacro gas transport system operator, as a member of the INA oil company's Management Board.

The government held a conference call at which it adopted a conclusion to propose that the INA Supervisory Board appoint Zovko, an economist with extensive management experience and currently a member of the Plinacro Management Board, a member of the INA Management Board until its members are selected in a public competition and for a period of maximum six months.

The government said that in selecting the candidate it had consulted with the Commission for the Prevention of Conflict of Interest, which gave its consent.

The government’s latest proposal comes after a week ago one of its candidates for members of the INA Management Board, Emanuel Kovacic, withdrew the proposal for his candidacy.

It was decided at the time that the government would forward a proposal for a new candidate to INA’s Supervisory Board.

The day before, on 19 September, the government nominated Kovacic, Miroslav Skalicki and Hrvoje Simovic as candidates for members of the INA Management Board until the selection of new members in a public procedure and for a period of maximum six months.

After it was found that INA had been defrauded of more than one billion kuna in a scam involving unlawful gas resales, the Chairman of the INA Management Board, Sándor Fasimon, stepped down, and his move was followed by the other two Hungarian members of the INA Management Board, Ferenc Horváth and József Simola.

The Croatian members of the INA Management Board are Niko Dalic, Darko Markotic and Barbara Doric.

The government has said that following the corruption scandal at INA, it expected the entire company management to resign and INA’s management model to be re-examined.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic has said that he expects the entire company management to step down, including its Croatian members, and that a solution will be found to dismiss them without severance pay.