Basescu Finds “Barons of the Economy” In Energy Companies

05.09.2011 ZF English

President Traian Basescu at the end of last week identified the big "boyars-barons" of the Romanian economy as being the managers of the biggest local energy companies. These state-held companies are controlled by the Economy Ministry, led by PD-L (Democratic Liberal Party), with their bosses being appointed solely based on political criteria and also PD-L members.

On the president's black list are Compania Natională a Huilei (National Coal Mining Company), a company with over EUR1billion in debt, energy producers Turceni and Rovinari, the biggest in Oltenia, Termoelectrica, a company whose reorganisation has been discussed for years, Oltchim and Posta Romana (The Romanian Post Office).

Basescu did not cite any examples from among the state-held companies managed by the Transport Ministry, an institution he ran in the past. TAROM posted EUR55 million in loss in 2009, 34 times higher than in 2008 and CFR (The National Romanian Railway Company) reached debts of around RON1.9 billion lei (over EUR450 million) to suppliers of electricity, be they state-held or privately-held.

"I mention them publicly because their losses, their arrears are paid for by every Romanian. Why are we paying for them? Because their managers, who have been politically appointed and politically blessed, are not in the least worried about arrears, stocks, personnel increases, salary funds. They are the big boyars of the Romanian economy. The barons of the Romanian economy are mainly to be found in public corporations," said Băsescu. Turceni and Rovinari energy producers did not post losses last year, but their profit margins are extremely low, even lower than 1%.