The Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) has launched an investigation against Zagreb County Prefect Stjepan Kozic and his cabinet's head, Mirjana Ostrec-Bosek, on suspicion that they used taxpayers' money to pay for a private dinner for a hospital's personnel.

A statement issued on Friday by USKOK, which did not reveal the identity of the suspects, says that in January 2020 the prefect asked his associate to use money from the allocation set aside in the county budget for representation costs to pay for a delivery of food and beverages to the medical staff in the Merkur hospital in Zagreb upon his discharge from that institution.

Ostrec-Bosak later reportedly told the accounting department to cover the invoice in the amount of 5,250 kuna for food delivered to the hospital by a private company.

USKOK also accuses Kozic of trying to tamper with the evidence as he issued an official statement in which it was declared that 5,250 kuna had been spent for an official dinner within a project involving Education Ministry officials. In the meantime, the media say, the ministry denied that its representatives attended any such dinner.

Given the small amount concerned, Kozic, who denied all the allegations, will not be detained in custody during the ongoing investigation.