After conducting an investigation, the USKOK anti-corruption office has filed an indictment with the Osijek County Court against former Pozega mayor and HDZ MP Darko Puljasic and his deputy Mario Pilon, who are suspected of influence peddling and rigging a local energy renovation tender.

Prosecutorial authorities said in a press release that Puljasic and Pilon in January 2020 used their offices to ask the director of the local Komunalac utility company, Josip Vitez, to give preferential treatment to certain bidders in a public procurement procedure related to the energy renovation of buildings managed by Komunalac.

Prosecutorial authorities add that Puljasic and Pilon said that the bidders would mutually adjust their bids in such a way that the project was awarded to those chosen by them, with the value of their bids being of the maximum amount eligible for co-financing by the Environment Protection and Energy Efficiency Agency.

Vitez refused to do so and advertised the tender in 2020 contrary to their demands.

Puljasic stepped down as an HDZ MP on 14 January and on the same day the prosecutorial authorities in Slavonski Brod indicted him for grant fraud worth HRK 1 million which the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds awarded for the expansion of an elementary school on the basis of forged documents.

On 21 January Puljasic was dismissed as head of the local HDZ committee and he also resigned as vice-president of the HDZ Slavonski Brod County branch, and Pilon resigned as its member.

According to the media, investigations in this case were launched in April 2020 due to the suspicion that tenders for the energy renovation of several buildings run by Komunalac had been rigged.

The public learned of this after the media released a secret recording of a conversation between Vitez and Puljasic in which Puljasic tried to talk Vitez into acting contrary to regulations on energy renovation.