On 5 April 2023, Minister of Justice and Public Administration Ivan Malenica signed the Agreement on the Realisation of the Project “Modernisation of the Prison System through the Construction of Gospić Penitentiary” with Head of Lika-Senj County Ernest Petry and Mayor of Gospić Karlo Starčević.
It is a tripartite agreement among the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration, Lika-Senj County and the City of Gospić, relating to the construction of a new penitentiary in Gospić.
The closed-type penitentiary will provide accommodation for 400 inmates.
Minister of Justice and Public Administration Ivan Malenica explained that signing the Agreement represents the first step in the construction of the Gospić Penitentiary.
“The aim of the project is to build a state-of-the-art penitentiary in Croatia and one of the most modern facilities of the kind in this part of Europe. It will be the strictest complex within our prison system with the maximum security level and the highest standards of respect for human rights”, said Minister Malenica.
He also pointed out that the largest investments of the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration after the City of Zagreb are in the area of Lika-Senj County, where the construction of the Central Archives for all land registry departments as well as works on the court building in Senj are in the final stage. The signing of this Agreement reconfirms the good relations the Ministry has with the Lika-Senj County and the City of Gospić.
“The City of Gospić was not randomly chosen to build the penitentiary. We believe that Gospić is in a strategically important location that connects the north and the south as well as the east and the west of the country, and the realisation of this project will contribute to the demographic and social revitalisation of this part of Croatia”, concluded Malenica.
“Lika-Senj County, thanks to the line Ministry, will have two capital investments in this area,” said County Executive Petry.
“A single new job in places such as Gospić and Lika is praiseworthy, while 250 jobs truly mean the revitalisation of the entire region,” said Karlo Starčević, Mayor of Gospić.
The value of the project is estimated at EUR 70,000,000, and the Council of Europe Development Bank will finance 70 % of the investment with VAT, while the remaining 30 % of the construction costs will be borne from the state budget.
After signing the Agreement, Minister Malenica visited the construction site of the Central Archives of the Land Registers of the Republic of Croatia.