The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Zagreb filed an indictment for misuse of European funds against 29 persons in the so-called Geodesy affairs, including the former assistant to the Minister of Culture Davor Trupković and the former dean of the Faculty of Geodesy, Almin Đapo.
With the EPPO indictment, 29 persons and one company are charged with abuse of position and authority, corruption, illegal favouritism, falsification of official documents and money laundering, and the total material damage is estimated at 2.8 million euros.
From the results of the investigation, it follows that from May 2019 to November 2023, former dean Đapo and former professor from the Faculty of Geodesy Boško Pribičević organized 27 public procurement procedures related to four projects, in which the Faculty participated, with a total value of 5,988,300 euros, of which 85 percent was co-financed by the Union.
It also follows that the defendants manipulated procurement procedures with the aim of certain companies being selected, while in return part of the money paid was returned to them or bills for their private needs were paid according to their instructions, EPPO reported.
Other defendants are accused of submitting invalid or overpriced bids in order to ensure that the bids of favored companies are selected.
Former dean Đapo and former professor Pribičević were also accused of spending project funds for the purchase of two vehicles that were used for the personal needs of the professor and another employee of the Faculty of Geodesy.
In addition, with the money from the project, they bought a motor boat that was not used for project activities, but was rented out for nautical tourism.
Furthermore, they are accused of submitting false information for travel expenses and per diems for themselves and nine members of project research teams and professional associates for trips that were not made in at least 266 cases.
False and flawed earthquake damage assessment
Former Assistant Minister of Culture and Media Trupković is charged with criminal acts after being appointed head of a team to record buildings damaged in two earthquakes in March and December 2020, which included three-dimensional documentation of the damage.
It is suspected that he agreed with the then dean Đep that, in exchange for a material benefit, that documenting work would be entrusted to the Faculty of Geodesy, even though he knew that the faculty did not have the capacity for it and that he would hire a company managed by the dean and professor for that work.
According to the evidence collected, the former assistant minister confirmed reports without proper verification, including reports that falsely claimed that filming had been completed or listed facilities for which work had already been paid for. As a result of such action, invoices with unreasonably inflated prices were issued to the ministry.
Based on three reports approved in this way, the Ministry of Culture and Media paid the Faculty of Geodesy more than 2.5 million euros. About 800,000 euros were first paid at the expense of the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF), but since the appropriate public procurement procedure was not carried out, this amount was ultimately charged to the State Budget of the Republic of Croatia.
Trupković also approved the fourth report in the amount of 3.2 million euros, but the payment was not made after civil servants in the Ministry of Culture and Media realized that the report mentioned objects from previous reports.
As a consequence of the defendant’s described actions, this work was overpaid by around 900,000 euros at the expense of the Croatian state budget. In addition, the documentation work on four facilities had to be repeated by other companies, which led to additional costs of 10,982.80 euros charged to the EU Solidarity Fund and the Croatian State Budget.
The actions of the defendant caused a total damage of 2.8 million euros (1.2 million euros to the Union budget, 1.4 million euros to the State budget and 200,000 euros to the Faculty of Geodesy). At the same time, all the defendants received non-property benefits in the amount of 670,000 euros, of which the former dean in the amount of 140,000 euros, and the former professor in the amount of 307,000 euros, EPPO reported.
(TYPE/Source: Hina/Photo: Illustration/BHRT)
