Defence Minister Mario Banozic confirmed on Monday that the State Attorney's Office (DORH) was investigating a project to build patrol boats for the Croatian Navy, noting that Brodosplit shipyard owner Tomislav Debeljak was stating untruths about the job.

Brodosplit has been working on those boats for nine years and so far only one of the five planned vessels has been completed, while four were to have been completed by 2023, the minister told reporters during a visit to Petrinja, noting that the ministry had honoured all of its obligations under the project contract signed in 2014.

“The vessels should have been completed in 2018. Annexes to the contract were signed, the last one during my term, for a 10% price increase… and Debeljak promised the vessels would be built but they have not been,” Banozic said.

He added that the ministry was still waiting for an answer in writing from Debeljak as to “whether the vessels can be completed in line with the contract still in force and within the set deadline.”

“We are not being given a clear answer and untruths are being disseminated,” he said in reference to Debeljak’s mentioning the sale of the vessels to a foreign client and his accusing the minister of undermining national security.

Banozic said that the DORH was involved in the case and stressed that the vessels were owned by the Croatian state as well as that the state did not owe any money to Debeljak.