April 28, 2020 – Beware the Croatian inspector – a new series courtesy of Glas Poduzetnika (Voice of Entrepreneurs), highlighting a Croatian business reality that helps kill growth, profit, and entrepreneurship.
I have seen them operating all over the country over the last 18 years, the most feared visitors to Croatia’s cafes, restaurants, and other businesses – the Croatian inspector.
As with many corrupt countries, the role of the inspector should be to make sure that the rules are being adhered to in the particular area they specialise in – sanitary, fiscal, etc – but in reality, the prime motivation is to find ways to fill the State coffers and their own. Allegedly.
I heard SO many stories of inspections where perfectly run businesses end up paying thousands in fines, some of it justified, much of it grossly unfair. And there is an old truism here:
If the Croatian inspector comes to visit, he will find something, even if there is nothing there.
It is a subject that I have wanted to cover for years, but I never had quite the right material. Until now.
Huge thanks to those very proactive chaps at Glas Poduzetnika, who are really becoming a force for change to be reckoned with. A really great initiative. In one of their latest moves, they have been collecting some of their members’ experiences with the Croatian inspector, to highlight the issue and the realities of doing business in Beautiful Croatia.
Story #3: They barged in like cowboys
They barged in my salon on 13th November 2019 like cowboys, I thought they would rob me for a moment… They introduced themselves, showed badges, and started splitting hairs. The documents were almost all in order, I didn’t have the minimum technical conditions document (when I just opened it I didn’t need to, made a million calls, of course, after a year I completely forgot about it). And they are not really needed, because the law states that my activity of selling hair care products does NOT require it because it is implied if someone likes shampoo or any other product that I have used or recommended that I sell. Still, they say they have nothing to do with it, it is an economic activity (verbally they advised me to make this minimal conditions document, and put in the record that it is not needed).
Cash register, printing copies of bills from that day because there was no way to pull out the tape Z just for that day since my accountant told me that I do it monthly, not daily. They started to add up the bills. It was interesting when the inspector put 40.00 kn down as 50.00 kn. She claimed that it was 50.00, and I know it was 40.00, trying to explain to her that the discount was 20% and that 40.00 was clearly stated (I don’t know if it was intentional or accidental). She finally understood, and we moved on to counting the money, and of course, everything was in order… She angrily said to her colleague, “YOU SEE”… I don’t know what that was supposed to mean, but whatever, I thought everything is OK, they will leave… That was a screw-up on my side, I thought wrong, as I said, they were splitting hairs…
As I closed the box that contains the cash register, she saw the box under it, asked me to open it, and I did… My wallet was in there (I asked the accountant if I could put it there she said I could, I believed her because she used to work in Fina) she asked me to open it. When I made it clear that was MY PERSONAL WALLET, she said, I quote: “It doesn’t matter, everything that is on the business premises belongs to the business premises!!” (There is no logic at all in this because if this was the case, she could have also asked the customer’s wallet and sum it up with the cash register. If this is the case, then I also have the right to dig through bags, jackets, and everything on the premises, so there is really no logic.)
So I opened it. I only had the coins in my wallet, no other personal money, just the coins. Considering that the Z tape was pulled monthly, and with the money in the wallet, she didn’t know what else to do… For the next half an hour, she was calling everyone around, and I started crying. That was something I created with my husband, with my own hands, without loans, just with the savings and hard work. I thought it was over, that they would ban me from working (they hinted so discreetly). A colleague told her since this was the first time and such a situation to let me go with a warning, but her response was “I WON’T” (she will get what she wants).
Meanwhile, she asked for my ID. She took a photo of it, wrote down all the information and said they will go to the office, that they were not sure what to do with me. They left, maybe they will seize the money, maybe close me up, they didn’t know. As I was collecting the documents, I noticed that my ID wasn’t there, she duly took my ID with her. They were gone for two hours, and I was afraid to call the police and tell them about what she had done. Given their behavior, I didn’t want to offend them, and I’ve already heard that they are, so to speak, on their own… When they got back, she gave me back my ID and said that I HAD to sign the papers. I, an ignorant fool, did so because she told me. When I was supposed to write the statement, she said it was not needed, as it wouldn’t have been accepted anyway (at that moment, but later, it was good that I wrote it, because it can be taken into consideration later).
The report stated that the surplus was found in the cash register, and it wasn’t. The same report stated the wrong OIB (PIN) and the incorrect address, which I noted afterward. There were other irregularities, too, that I can’t remember right now. For the record, I am not in the VAT system, and I don’t have to give out invoices. It’s worth more to payout myself what was lent than to give out an invoice. From that day on, I don’t know what I am dealing with. I don’t know what the fine will be. The difference between the money in the wallet and in the cash register was only 1.5%. I did not receive anything, no decision, no misdemeanor order, absolutely nothing. I can’t describe the burden I’ve been living with since that day because I don’t know what fate would they create for me.
Beware the Croatian Inspector is a new daily series (yes, there really is that much material) which you can follow here.
If you have a Croatian inspector story you would like to share with the Glas Poduzetnika team (in English or Croatian), you can do so via [email protected] Subject TCN inspector.
You can follow the 55,000+ others on the Glas Poduzetnika Facebook page.
