The dismissal of the people identified in the European Commission letter as not meeting the provisions of milestone 121 of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan has begun, and out of about 40 people targeted in the Commission’s preliminary estimate, around a quarter have already been dismissed, Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja said on Thursday at the briefing at the end of the Government meeting.
“We have already started the revocation of those persons who are identified in the European Commission’s letter, as having not fulfilled milestone 121 of the PNRR. General meetings of shareholders have taken place at several companies: Electrocentrale Craiova, Complexul Energetic Oltenia, Media Green, a small project company – it recently completed the cogeneration plant in Năvodari. (…) Also, Oil Terminal and several listed companies are following that I will not name yet because I do not want to influence developments on the capital market. (…) Somewhere around 40 persons are targeted in the Commission’s preliminary estimate, and I emphasize this because we will have a decision and there, we will have a final number, and somewhere around a quarter I think have already been revoked”, explained Burduja, quoted by Agerpres.
The minister stressed that all those who added to their mandate contracts the provisions of the Emergency Ordinance that gave them the right to receive six compensatory salaries will receive that money.
“If they refused this addition, but so far, I have not had such a case to my knowledge, then they will certainly not receive anything. And we will see each other in court if necessary and we will defend the interest of the Romanian state. Because we cannot afford to lose 300 million euros, 290 million euros on the last assessment of the Commission, maybe it will be less, for the interests of one person or another. I have said it before, Romania, in the interpretation of colleagues in the ministry, respected the legislation on 109 (Emergency Ordinance no. 109/2011 on the corporate governance of public enterprises n.r), but the Commission’s interpretation on the milestone identified a series of cases and then we had to proceed with these revocations, appointments of provisional administrators and subsequently the initiation of procedures on 109, which in a period of 6 months is reasonable. Time is short, but still we will fit in and we will not lose not a single euro from this milestone 121”, the Minister of Energy stated.
He mentioned that other revocations will follow, but in the case of companies listed on the stock exchange, things are going more slowly, because there are minimum legal deadlines between the moment of convening the General Meeting of Shareholders and the moment when the AGM can take place, namely about 30 days.
“Therefore, things have gone much faster for the unlisted ones. For the listed ones, we are waiting for the legal deadlines, after which we will rectify this situation and start the new selections”, pointed out Sebastian Burduja.
The European Commission announced that it had issued a positive preliminary assessment of the key milestone in Romania’s third payment request regarding the reduction of the special tax regime for micro-enterprises. On the other hand, the Commission found that milestone 215 (“Entry into force of the legislative framework for reducing special pension expenses”) is not met at this stage.
At the same time, the EC announced that it is activating the “suspension of payments” procedure, as outlined in the MRR Regulation. This procedure gives Romania more time to meet these outstanding milestones, while receiving partial payments for the milestones that have been successfully completed.
So far, 68 out of the 74 milestones and targets have been positively assessed under this application, which amounts to €2 billion (excluding pre-financing) under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the core element of NextGenerationEU.
The milestones considered unmet concern special pensions, investments to modernise the railway infrastructure and develop the underground transport network in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, as well as reforms for performance-based management in transport, improving the corporate governance of state-owned energy companies and operationalising corporate governance policies for state-owned enterprises.
New administrators for Romgaz and Oil Terminal
The Ministry of Energy requested the addition of the convening notice of the Romgaz AGM of April 14/15 with points regarding the change of some Romgaz administrators, as well as the election of provisional members of the Board of Directors, according to a report submitted to the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The measure targets several state-owned companies, where the European Commission requested changes, in order to meet the milestone regarding corporate governance in the NRRP.
Thus, Dumitru Chisăliță, president of the Smart Energy Association, would have proposed to temporarily take over the position of Romgaz president, instead of Dan Drăgan.
At the same time, the Ministry proposes three provisional administrators at Oil Terminal – Ion Lungu (president of CNR-CME), Luminița Vlădescu (accountant, former deputy mayor of Medgidia) and Manuela Petronela Stan Olteanu (head of the Nuclearelectrica participation management department), according to documents prepared for the General Meeting of Shareholders of April 9/10.
The ministry is making changes in the management of portfolio companies due to the failure to meet the PNRR milestone related to corporate governance in state-owned companies, writes Financialintelligence.
The dismissal of people who do not meet the provisions of milestone 121 of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan has recently begun, out of about 40 people targeted in the European Commission’s preliminary estimate, a quarter have already been dismissed.