Millionaire father in Herzegovina, son in Croatia sought and received scholarship for social cases

(Patria) - Ivan Kovačević is a Bosnian-Herzegovinian entrepreneur, closely connected with local politics, and has a great influence on the local community. His son Tomislav has dual citizenship and is studying traffic engineering in Zagreb, and this year he applied for a scholarship in Croatia, as a socio-economic case, no less. He was exposed, and had to return the money, which the Ministry of Science and Education confirmed to Index.

Tomislav Kovačević was recently exposed by journalists from the portal Hercegovina info, who found his name among the published results of scholarship awards in Croatia. His grandfather, father, and uncle are long-time entrepreneurs and own several companies.

Despite this, Tomislav met the conditions for a scholarship where one of the main conditions is that household income does not exceed 289.16 euros. The Ministry of Science and Education confirmed to Index that Kovačević received the scholarship for nine months and was paid a total of 1800 euros.

How did this happen?

The Ministry of Science and Education explains that Kovačević applied for the scholarship as a Croatian citizen residing in Croatia and that at that time they had no knowledge or possibility to know if he had dual citizenship and residence outside of Croatia.

“During the application for the Competition, the student filled out a Declaration of Household Members within the electronic application form by entering the OIB (Personal Identification Number) of each household member, and the data was automatically retrieved from the official records of state administration bodies for the student and household members who have registered residence in the Republic of Croatia.

Since all members he listed in the Declaration of Household Members have Croatian citizenship and registered residence in the Republic of Croatia, the Ministry of Science and Education retrieved the annual income earned in the previous year by all household members (including the student) from the official records of the Tax Administration of the Republic of Croatia", the Ministry stated.

He did not declare his father, a wealthy entrepreneur, as a household member

"Since the student did not declare his father as a household member in the Declaration of Household Members, nor enter his OIB, it was not possible to retrieve data from the official records of state administration bodies (residence and data on total income earned).

The Ministry confirmed that, after the case was established, Tomislav Kovačević had to return the money received from the scholarship.

His father, Ivan Kovačević, is one of the most influential people in Herzegovina, writes Hercegovina.info. As the owner of a bus transport company with 40 buses, he has invested millions in bus stations in Livno and Tomislavgrad, and he often collaborates with local politics.

The portal Hercegovina.info states that the Kovačevići also own a company dealing with PVC joinery, from which they generate over a million marks annually. They also write that Kovačević owns a cafe in Tomislavgrad and a construction company in Croatia, registered in Sesvete.