UPDATE Anastasiu: Of the 1,326 state-owned enterprises, 315 make 96% of the turnover

Deputy Prime Minister Dragoș Anastasiu said that out of 1,326 state-owned companies, 315 public enterprises account for 96% of the turnover. There are many state-owned enterprises that have either not published their figures, or have declared zero, or are at a loss, despite having received subsidies, including CFR or Metrorex.

AMEPIP's sights are on 1,326 public enterprises, which are either 100% state-owned or the state has a majority stake.

"We have 1,182 at the local level and they are divided into joint-stock companies, autonomous regies and SRLs and 144 at the central level. So we have 376 SAs, 88 autonomous regies and 842 SRLs. If we start sorting a little and put aside all the central companies, all autonomous regies, as well as local companies that have an impact, that have a turnover over 50 million lei or have other types of important impacts, we have 315 public enterprises that make 96% of the turnover of all enterprises," says Anastasiu.

Of the 256,000 employees in all public enterprises, 173,000 are in these 315 major companies.

"The total revenues of all the companies we are considering are 127 billion, while the top 315 have 13.6 billion, or 96% of the revenues," explains the deputy prime minister.

In terms of subsidies, in total, they are 14 billion and these top 315 companies have 13.6 billion.

"Now, the profits, for all companies 15 billion, but we have to reduce subsidies, and the top 315 have 14.9 billion. When we reduce subsidies, you will see that in total almost 1 billion RON remains. Now, the situation of losses. At the national level, 266 enterprises generate losses of 2.5 billion RON, among which seven companies generate losses of 2 billion RON, attention, after receiving subsidies. These are Căi Ferate CFR SA, Electrocentrale Craiova SA, Unifarm SA, Transport Ferroviar Marfă CFR Marfa SA, Compania Municipală Termoenergetica SA, Metrorex SA, Complex Energetic Valea Jiului SA. 2 billion RON", explained Dragoș Anstasiu.

Of the 1,182 local companies, of which 270 are SAs, 78 are autonomous regies and 834 are SRLs. Of these, around 300 companies have not submitted financial data.

"So we don't know anything about them. Around 250 companies have zero income. These, together, give 550 companies that either have zero income or we don't know anything about them, out of the 1,182 companies. Around 230 companies, so of the others that we know something about, have losses. And around 600 companies have up to 10 employees. We have as areas of activity: water and sewerage - there are 326 companies, about half of which are profitable, half of which we either don't know about or have losses. 146 sanitation companies - of which only 76 are profitable, 30 are at a loss, 26 we don't know anything about. 61 are transport companies, of which 41 are at a profit, 10 are at a loss, 55 have no financial data submitted. What do we see in total? That we have quite significant inefficiency in the area of these companies, that we have significant polarization," he says. Dragos Anastasiu.

46% of the profits of these companies are accounted for by Hidroelectrica.

"We have a few companies that are very profitable and a lot of companies, for which we do not have financial figures at the moment, either have a small profit or are at a loss. The companies had the obligation or have the obligation to submit financial data to both the Trade Register, to ANAF, they will be seen at the Trade Register, and to AMEPIP. And I want to tell you that starting yesterday (Monday - ed.) the fines started to flow. So far AMEPIP has not fined these companies and I think this should happen, because if we do not have discipline, the job will not be done", the deputy prime minister also said.

Deputy Prime Minister Dragoș Anastasiu said on Tuesday that Romania must recover by November 25 a penalty of 330 million euros applied within the PNRR, as a result of the failure to achieve certain milestones in the field of corporate governance.

"To move forward in our endeavor, we will have to amend the legislation. Any amendment will be made after consultations with the European Commission and the OECD," Anastasiu said in a statement delivered to the Government.

He emphasized that Romania has already obtained a"certificate of good conduct" from the OECD regarding corporate governance and has ticked off some of the PNRR milestones in this area.

However, other milestones remain behind schedule, which has generated the financial penalty.

INITIAL NEWS: The Prime Minister stated that the proposed measures aim at two main directions: ensuring transparency and management reform.

"First of all, all line ministries will be obliged to publish complete and updated information about state-owned companies - who manages them, what earnings they achieve, what are the performance indicators and all relevant economic data. I do not think it is a shame for leaders to have this public information, it is an act of normality that we will implement in the immediate future," said the Head of Government.

Ilie Bolojan also announced measures to limit the number of board members and cap their remuneration."There have been cases where remuneration has quickly reached the maximum level permitted by law, without this being justified by real performance. This is an unacceptable practice, and through the new regulations we will introduce clear limits and correlations with the companies' performance," the prime minister said.

Another essential aspect of the reform concerns the updating of performance indicators in managers' contracts."Ministry will review these indicators to ensure that they truly reflect the efficiency and quality of services provided by companies, not formal or irrelevant criteria," Bolojan pointed out.

The Head of the Executive stated that by the end of the summer, the agency for monitoring state-owned companies will also become operational, an objective assumed through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), but especially necessary for the good administration of public resources.

"Every leu gained from making companies more efficient is a gain for the national budget and for Romania's investment projects," concluded Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan.