The Anti-Corruption Council on Tuesday morning started a session at which it planned to question Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, former minister Tomislav Coric and five ex-members of INA's management about the governance of that oil and gas group, but only one of those summoned turned up.

Davor Mayer, a former member of the INA management board, came to the session, while another former member of the board, Ivan Kresic, sent an e-mail in which he explained that he had already given oral and written depositions about INA to the relevant authorities and agencies.

On Monday, PM Plenkovic said that he would not attend today’s session of this Council as he did not want to give legitimacy to what he called a political show organised by the opposition in collusion with an indictee charged with an economic crime by the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK). He referred to a former CEO of the JANAF oil pipeline operator, Dragan Kovacevic, who was recently interviewed by the Council about INA.

PM Plenkovic is due to present a State of the Nation report to the parliament at noon.

The Council’s chairman, Nikola Grmoja of the opposition Most Party, said that the non-attendance of PM Plenkovic would be a lethal strike to his cabinet.

On the other hand, MP Hrvoje Zekanovic, who recently joined the Council, accused Mayer of having retained his position in the INA’s management board thanks to the support he had enjoyed from the Most party. Zekanovic claimed that Mayer should have been dismissed from the INA board in 2016, however, the Most, which was part of the ruling coalition at the time, stood up for him and since then he managed to earn HRK 12 million in that position, which is the reason for his attendance to the Council hearing today, to repay Most’s services,  according to Zekanovic’s explanation.

Zekanovic also accused the Most and the SDP party, including SDP official Zeljko Jovanovic, who is currently an external member of the Council, along with some other Opposition parties of playing a political show at the council in a bid to oust the current government.

The 11-member Anti-Corruption Council is a body established by a Parliament decision in 2006. It is always chaired by an Opposition MP and it currently consists of five MPs and six external members.