The Croatian parliament approved on October 11 the setting up of an inquiry commission that will look into alleged wrongdoings at Croatian food and retail giant Agrokor, according to press reports.

Agrokor, Croatia’s largest company and one of the largest employers in the SEE region, is undergoing restructuring after a debt crisis pushed it to the brink of collapse earlier this year. The Croatian government stepped in to appoint emergency management at the group.

An audit report has recently showed that the Agrokor Group’s net loss in 2016 amounted to HRK11bn (€1.46bn), while the company’s liabilities amounted to HRK56.3bn.

The parliamentary commission consists of nine members and is led by Social Democratic Party (SDP) deputy Orsat Miljenic, poslovni.hr reported. Five of the commission's members are from the ruling coalition and four from the opposition, which includes the SDP. The setting up of the commission was approved with 113 votes in favour, 11 votes against and 13 abstentions, one day after the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the SDP reached an agreement on the issue.

The commission is expected to carry out technical work until October 30. It will have six months to find out how the food and retail giant ran into trouble.

The founder of Agrokor Ivica Todoric wrote on his blog that he welcomes the setting up of the commission.

“In fact, the parliament is the place where with the participation of all parliamentary parties, all circumstances and roles of individuals and politics in this case will be clarified. Also, the role of the HNB [central bank] and other actors will be clarified,” Todoric wrote.

Todoric has recently said that he wants to file criminal charges against the company's extraordinary commissioner Ante Ramljak. Todoric also accused the government of using the Lex Agrokor law to steal his company and the emergency management of deceiving prosecutors with inaccurate and incomplete data. Todoric claims Ramljak was aware of all these actions.

Last week, the deputy CEO of Russia’s Sberbank, Maksim Poletaev, said in an interview with Russian news agency Interfax, quoted by Total Croatia News, that Agrokor owes Sberbank around €1.1bn.

Back in August, Sberbank initiated arbitration proceedings against Agrokor and 11 guarantors in respect of €450mn lent to Agrokor Group by Sberbank which the Russian bank claimed should be repaid as a result of the Croatian extraordinary administration proceedings.