Croatian oil company INA said that it has selected KPMG to carry out an external audit of its gas trading business.
The statement from the company said that the external audit follows INA’s internal probe of a suspected gas trading scam related to a former head of INA’s natural gas retail department Damir Skugor.
INA’s CEO Peter Ratatics said that the management board of INA is fully committed to re -examining the system of controlling the company and other business processes, with a focus on gas trading activities. The company expects that the external audit will provide an independent overview of its processes of gas trading and recommend opportunities for further development of its systems to enable to company to achieve stronger and better results.
The external audit will also review INA’s gas trading portfolio from 2020 to 2022 and is expected to be completed by the middle of November.
In late August, Croatia’s anti-corruption office (USKOK) launched an operation in which five persons were arrested, including INA’s executive Damir Skugor, on suspicion of illegal gas trading and money laundering. Namely, the suspects allegedly took advantage of the constant rise in natural gas prices on the global market, with OMS Ulaganja buying gas below market prices from Plinara Istocna Slavonija, which had a gas purchase agreement with INA at favorable prices, and selling it on the international market at market prices. They allegedly spent the money thus obtained on the purchase of real estate. Investigator claim that the suspects were purchasing gas from INA at 19.5 euros and were selling at the price of 28 euros. Damages to INA are estimated over 130 million euros.
