Judicial administrator of Romania's biggest energy company Hidroelectrica fires 304 employees, including ex-CEO

The judicial administrator of insolvent energy company Hidroelectrica has made a shock move to fire more than 300 employees, including Hidroelectrica's former CEO Traian Oprea. Those sacked yesterday (May 21) numbered 304 in total and included executive level employees, according to Mediafax newswire. Hidroelectrica is the largest energy company in Romania and operates the huge hydroelectric installations on the Danube River. “Today 304 employees were laid off, including former executives, union leaders and spouses of executives. When he heard about the layoffs, Traian Oprea suddenly fell ill and was hospitalized. Accordingly, I sent the court bailiff,” Remus Borza, head of Euro INSOL, judicial administrator of Hidroelectrica, quoted by Mediafax. Borza said that Oprea held the position of a “simple engineer” within Hidroelectrica and when asked why he had been fired, the judicial administrator said it was due to incompetence. Oprea was CEO between 2003 and 2009 and seems to have been at the center of the cut rate energy supply contracts that have damaged Hidroelectrica's financial performance and been instrumental in the company's insolvency. The country's president Traian Basescu labeled those who signed these prejudicial contracts “the smart guys” and the name has stuck. Oprea was CEO when many of the dubious contracts were signed. The sudden sacking of Oprea and the other 303 employees appears to have been something of a purge by the judicial administrator, to rid Hidroelectrica of those associated with the bad practices of the past. Hidroelectrica announced last week (May 14) that it will sell, through public auction, 88 of its small hydro-power plants. The sale was approved on March 13, 2013 during the company’s General Meeting of Shareholders and it will be done in stages, starting this June, “through transparent and competitive methods, securely meeting the Romanian law,” read a statement from the company. The 88 units have a combined installed capacity of 58 MW. Hidroelectrica operates hydropower plants with a total capacity of over 6,000 MW. The entire list of the small hydropower plants to be auctioned, here. Hidroelectrica entered the insolvency process on June 20, 2012, in order to be re-organized. Euro INSOL was appointed the judicial administrator.