The spokesman of the Croatian government, Marko Milic said on Tuesday that the "priority of the new members proposed by the government for the Ina management board would be to make preparations for the talks with the Hungarian side on changing the model of managing this Croatian oil and gas group," state agency Hina said.

“The new members will be given six-months terms, they are supposed to make a screening of the company for us to prepare the ground for the talks with the Hungarian side about amending the model of the management. This is the primary task for them,” Milic told N1 Television on Tuesday.

Hina did not say how the new model would be different.

Croatian government on Tuesday decided to appoint Marin Zovko, currently an executive at the state-owned Plinacro gas transport system operator, to join the management of Ina. The decision came a week after one of the government’s candidates, Emanuel Kovacic, withdrew the proposal for his candidacy.

Hina did not cite what Kovacic’s reasons were.

On 19 September, the government nominated Kovacic, Miroslav Skalicki and Hrvoje Simovic as candidates for new Croatian-appointed members of management board, “until the selection of new members in a public procedure and for a period of maximum six months,” Hina said. All three are largely unknown to the public.

“After it was found that Ina had been defrauded of more than 1 billion kuna in a gas trading scheme, Ina’s Hungarian CEO, Sandor Fasimon, stepped down, and his move was followed by the other two Hungarian members of the management board, Ferenc Horvath and Jozsef Simola,” Hina said.

The scandal did not involve any Hungarian executives though, but did involve a lower level Croatian executive Damir Skugor who was also a card-carrying member of the ruling HDZ party and was put in charge of the company’s gas trade.

Ina is co-owned by the Croatian government, which holds a 45-percent stake in the company, and Hungary’s Mol group, which owns close to 49 percent of shares. Each owner appoints three members of the company’s managing board, with one of Mol’s members serving as CEO. The Croatian members of the board are currently Niko Dalic, Darko Markotic, and Barbara Doric, also largely unknown to the public.

Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, said that following the corruption scandal at Ina, the entire management board must go, and called for “Ina’s management model to be re-examined.” He did not specify what he meant by that.

According local media speculations, the government decided to replace existing members rather than have them resign, as resignations would involve them getting generous severance packages, something which would be frowned upon by the public.

Ona also has a nine-member supervisory board in which Mol controls five seats, three is controlled by the Croatian government, and one is reserved for a representative of Ina employees. The chairman of the supervisory board is one of three government-appointed members.