ZAGREB, March 5, 2019 – Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy Minister Nada Murganić said on Monday that interdepartmental cooperation was of vital importance and that she would decide on the dismissal of the head of the Zadar Social Care Centre, Vesna Burčul, after the centre’s steering board analysed the tragedy that happened on Pag island last week, when a man threw his four underage children from the balcony of the house they live in.
The minister said that everyone must admit their omissions before discussing omissions in the work of others.
Both social workers and ministry officials have to work towards strengthening the system of social care, she said.
Asked who would now be taking care of the children – victims of domestic violence, Murganić said that the ministry and social workers were responsible for them but that the children should also be protected from excessive public interest while their recovery should continue to be monitored.
She said that she was not surprised that Vesna Burčul, head of the Zadar Social Care Centre, which covers Pag, was not replaced today because the procedure was such that findings of an investigation into the case first had to be analysed by the centre’s steering board, after which Burčul would have the right to state her position on the findings.
Murganić said that she was glad to have received support from both the president and the prime minister after the public called for her resignation.
“That’s the nature of the department I’m heading, political actors frequently question my position, but that does not bother me much. I took up office at the government’s invitation and with the support of the parliamentary majority, and if I should go, that’s how I will go,” she said.
The head of the Zadar Social Care Centre, Vesna Burčul, said earlier in the day that the tragic event on Pag could not have been prevented and warned about social hypocrisy related to care about children in the system of social care, saying that that care was perfunctory and that the network of services for support to children and parents was weak and inefficient.
More news about social policy in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.
