Minister denies Posta Romana manager’s claims of closing down all post offices

The minister of digitization, Bogdan Ivan, stated there is no question of closing down some post offices, as the director of Posta Romana, Valentin Stefan, had announced.

Ivan added that he wants the company to develop – not restrict the activity of the “strategic institution [Posta Romana].”

“It is a key strategic institution in situations of mobilisation, and in situations where, for example, there may be problems with modern telecommunications. At such moments, you need an extremely important network at the national level to spread certain messages,” minister Bogdan Ivan explained, Economedia.ro reported.

He recommended the manager of Posta Romana, appointed under a competitive procedure to hire independent management at the key state-owned companies, to stop making statements that harm the image of the company.

Posta Romana manager Valentin Stefan announced in a recent press conference plans to close down all the post offices in the country within a calendar that depends on the flexibility of making a large number of redundancies.

The company later emphasised, in a press release, that the unprofitability of postal subunits is a serious issue that requires a deep debate, given that for almost 1,000 rural post offices, the average monthly income is approximately RON 1,700 while they require some RON 8,000 to operate.

However, the press release reads that closing post offices is not a priority for the company.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea)