The anti-corruption office USKOK has filed an indictment against Zagreb County prefect Stjepan Kozic on suspicion that he used county money to pay for a private lunch for the staff of Zagreb's Merkur Hospital, where he was treated in January 2020.

Without revealing their identities, the prosecution announced that Kozic was charged with using the prefect’s authority to ask the head of the prefect’s office, Mirjana Ostrec-Bosak, to organise and pay for the delivery of food and drinks to KB Merkur at the expense of the county budget in order to treat the medical staff following his release from the said hospital.

Ostrec-Bosak then signed the papers ordering from a catering company food and drinks worth €696 (5,250 kuna). After the food and drinks were delivered and the invoice received, she ordered in writing the accounting department to pay the specified amount to the catering company, the prosecution says.

According to the indictment, Ostrec-Bosak wrote on the back of the document she sent to the accounting department that the invoice refers to an event which she was aware did not happen and whose cost was not incurred for official purposes.

USKOK said that Kozic is also charged with having signed and stamped an official document stating that the expense concerned referred to a lunch organised as part of the preparation of a project. He submitted the document to USKOK although he knew that what was stated was not true.

According to the media, food, 13 bottles of wine and 18 liters of soft drinks were ordered from the Trajbar restaurant in the town of Zapresic, while Kozic and Ostrec-Bosak wrote on the fake invoice that it was lunch with representatives of the Ministry of Science and Education. The ministry, the media said, denied that their representatives were at such lunch.

Kozic had previously rejected the accusations, and during the investigation that preceded the indictment, he was not arrested because the amount in question was small.

(€1 = HRK 7.53)