Romania’s ruling party wants evaluation of state company boards

The administration boards [of state companies] and the people working there will be checked beginning January 2018, Liviu Dragnea, the leader of the Social Democrat Party (PSD) and the Chamber of Deputies speaker, announced. “I have talked with Mr. Marian Neacşu, the party’s general secretary, with Mr. Tăriceanu [e.n. the president of the Senate], with Mr. Tudose [e.n. the prime minister], with Mr. Ciolacu [e.n. a deputy prime minister] to have a discussion in January, an analysis about each one…because I was not involved in administration boards, neither was the prime minister,” Dragnea said in a TV show quoted by Agerpres. The PSD leader explained he wanted to see how and why the appointments were made and if the person fit the job. “I want to see, on one hand, if they were checked, and if they made it there rightfully, and, on the other, to see a minimum analysis of their activity,” he said. Dragnea added that prime minister Mihai Tudose wanted to the same thing, and they had discussed the matter at length. This December, the Chamber of Deputies voted a bill that exempts dozens of state companies from corporate governance rules. The ordinance on corporate governance, which was among the requirements of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financing Romania after the financial crisis, obliged state companies to appoint their board members and top executives through a transparent selection process. It banned political appointments. However, the ordinance was never fully implemented and some state companies were exempted from it. At the time, local investment fund Fondul Proprietatea, which owns minority stakes in several state companies, said the parliamentary majority’s decision to replace professional management in state-owned companies with political appointments marked the “darkest day in the history of corporate governance in Romania.” Dozens of state firms exempted from corporate governance in Romania editor@romania-insider.com