Despite being a successful businessman, Tihomir Orešković has decided to use one of his rights as a former high-ranking official and continue receiving government salary.
According to information from the government, former Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković has decided to continue receiving government salary. This is a right of former high-ranking government officials (members of government, MPs, deputy ministers…) who can continue receiving full salaries for 6 months after they leave office and half a salary for additional 6 months, reports dnevnik.hr on November 8, 2016.
Orešković is not the only official who has requested to exercise this right. He has been joined by his former chief of staff Neven Zelić and former Social Policy Minister Bernardica Juretić and former Health Minister Dario Nakić. Unless he finds a job in the next 12 months, Orešković will receive 22,000 kuna a month for the first six months, and 11,000 kuna for the following six months.
The same right has not been exercised by former Labour Minister Nada Šikić, former Education Minister Predrag Šustar and former Administration Minister Dubravka Jurlina Alibegović, who have returned to their old jobs, as well as former Defence Minister Josip Buljević, who is still waiting for a new assignment, possibly in diplomacy.
However, it should be noted that the Law on Conflict of Interest Prevention does prevent former officials from being members of board of directors of companies in the 12 months following the end of their term in office.
The so-called “6+6” right includes former Members of Parliament as well. Among members of the seventh Parliament (2011-2015), 55 MPs received or are still receiving the benefit. So far, the total of 7 million kuna has been paid from the state budget for this purpose. But, that is not all. There are also former members of the eight Parliament (January-October 2016) who have also exercised this right.
In addition to rights, former officials do have certain obligations. One of them is to report their personal assets at the end of the term. Former Prime Minister Orešković has fulfilled his obligation, and the data show a significant change. After his short term as Prime Minister, his savings have declined from 15 million kuna in February to 14.3 million kuna. So, in just eight months, the Prime Minister spent about 700,000 kuna from his personal funds.
Given the fact that the average salary in Croatia is about 6,000 kuna and that the former Prime Minister has such large savings, his decision to exercise the right to continue receiving salary from the budget for the next 12 months has quite understandably drawn harsh criticism.
