Minister of Interior Orepic begins his cost-cutting plans.
New Croatian Interior Minister Vlaho Orepić has made one of his first decisions which has confirmed that he was serious when he said he would make savings and rationalizations in his Ministry. Orepić has decided to abolish the right of his deputies, assistants and various police chiefs to have an official car available to them 24 hours a day. The cars will instead be given to “operatives”, police officers in the field, reports Index.hr on February 13, 2016.
“With these amendments to prior decisions, Minister Orepić wanted to accomplish the distribution of cars among police operatives, who are police officers ‘on the ground'”, explained the Interior Ministry in a statement.
The decision includes about 50 vehicles, mostly Opel and Skoda upper medium models. The change will result in a savings of between 3,000 and 4,000 kuna a month per vehicle, which means that the decision could bring savings of up to 200,000 kuna per month. However, if they provide a proper written explanation, deputy and assistant ministers and police chiefs will be able to get a vehicle in special situations.
“According to the announcements about cost rationalization at all levels, including in the possible non-prudent use of official cars, all budgetary items will be thoroughly analyzed”, the Public Relations Office of the Croatian Government said when asked whether other ministries might follow the example of Minister Orepić.
Since he is an officially protected person, Orepić was not able to deny himself an official car, and the same goes for the Police Director Vlado Dominić.
