The newly appointed Minister of Finance, Mr. Mirko Cvetkovic has not yet properly parked himself in his state of the art armchair, and already he is being challenged severely. The President of the Anti-Corruption Council, Mr. Verica Barac and Mr. Cvetkovic’s successor as a Director of the Privatization Agency, Mr. Branko Pavlovic fiercely criticize and accuse the new Minister of being involved in some shady business with tycoons. Mrs. Barac and Mr. Pavlovic claim that by choosing Mr. Cvetkovic the Democratic Party ‘’discredited itself ghastly’’.

Mrs. Barac states that from 2003 till 2004, Mr. Cvetkovic, being the first man of the Privatization Agency, participated in at least 88 fishy privatization procedures. The Anti-Corruption Council warned the Governments of Mr. Zivkovic and Mr. Kostunica about this issue but it was useless. 

‘’ One of the major sins of Mr. Cvetkovic is that at the time when he was the Head of the Agency, he was also the Executive Manager of the company ‘’Ces Mekon’’, which was hired by the very Agency. That is a transparent and intolerable conflict of interest! Privatization procedures were concluded in a narrow circle and a magical triangle: Institute of Economics – Diloitte & Touche – Ces Makon. Behind all this, of course, stand powerful parties and their hush-hush swindlers, who bow to no one...’’ says Mrs. Barac

She warns that the existing Law on Privatization opens the door wide open to the corruption.

‘’The appointment of Mr. Cvetkovic indicates that the Government has no intention of changing anything. Mr. Mirko Cvetkovic was one of those who created and implemented this process of the so-called ‘’fast privatization’’, which has been going on for years, hand in hand with a constant breach of the regulations, and violation of the law...’’ claims Mrs. Barac.

Mr. Branko Pavlovic goes even further and sees the election of Mr. Cvetkovic as a consequence of fear of certain tycoons from Mr. Bozidar Djelic!

‘’Mr. Mirko Cvetkovic is a poor answer, because he knows nothing about the finances, nor was he ever engaged in this field! Those tycoons who fear from the power of Mr. Bozidar Djelic favor him. They are afraid that Mr. Delic would escape their control and start avoiding them in the future privatization procedures, because he has good connections in the West’’- quotes Mr. Pavlovic.

He states few examples on account of which he ‘’absolutely could not support’’ the appointment of Mr. Mirko Cvetkovic for the new Minister of Finance. 

‘’When I entered the Privatization Agency after Mr. Cvetkovic left, I found chaos. There were no rules regarding a cancellation of agreements, no strategy concerning the role of the Share Fund, Consulting Companies received 60 per cent of the agreed sum in advance, and they had no obligation to find partners, merely to take care of the paper work... I refused to sign Cvetkovic’s Contract with the World Bank, because too many issues were disputable. I will mention just two privatization procedures, which were catastrophically performed during his mandate: Companies Putnik and Sever from Subotica’’ – quotes Mr. Pavlovic.

On the other hand, Mr. Mirko Cvetkovic does not take seriously the charges made by Mrs. Verica Barac and Mr. Branko Pavlovic.

‘’ I have already heard all this. If you look at everything that happened after I left the Privatization Agency, you will see that same sentences are being used, and I have no comment on this subject. I have just entered the office, give me at least a week, and than we can talk...’’- those were the only words Mr. Cvetkovic gave for daily Press yesterday.