Romanian PM to head task group charged with reforming corporate governance in SOEs

Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, in an interview for G4Media on July 28, said that he will not immediately appoint another deputy prime minister to replace Dragoș Anastasiu, who resigned over the weekend, but he will take over the task of reorganizing state-owned enterprises and the agency supervising them (AMEPIP).

Bolojan told G4Media that he did not know about the case involving Anastasiu and did not discuss it with him. Prime Minister Bolojan said that "we must not accept" bribery and protection fees and called on entrepreneurs to denounce such practices.

Deputy PM Anastasiu resigned on July 27, admitting that his companies paid bribes to an employee of the tax collection agency ANAF for eight years but claiming that the bribe was paid under coercion.

Commenting on the corruption among ANAF employees reported by Anastasiu, PM Bolojan said that he has information about employees of the Finance Ministry (which supervises ANAF) whose relatives have companies that deliver accounting or consulting services to the private companies controlled by ANAF. Asked by G4Media whether he had notified the prosecutor's office in these cases, the prime minister said that he had changed the leadership of ANAF and sent control teams to verify these practices.

(Photo: Gov.ro)