The Foundation For The Defense Of Citizens Against State Abuses (FACIAS) takes a stand against a widespread phenomenon, namely mismanagement and waste of public money in state-owned companies. To this end, FACIAS is launching the campaign "No Incompetents in Public Services" - an initiative aimed at stopping incompetence that costs Romanian citizens not only money, but also has real implications on the quality of life.
The campaign will focus on establishing objective and transparent criteria for appointing people to senior positions in state institutions and companies. Today, many of these companies represent a black hole in Romania's budget, with losses totalling billions of euros. Even in this context, their managers are paid salaries dozens of times higher than those of ordinary Romanians, even though their results are disastrous.
FACIAS believes that people appointed to management positions in these companies must have a real track record, including relevant experience and proven career performance.
The scale of losses—A picture of financial chaos
According to information obtained by FACIAS, six of the state companies have accumulated debts of over 1 billion euros in recent years. In the period 2020-2021, Complexul Energetic Oltenia had net losses of about 2.5 billion RON. The second place in this top is occupied by CFR Marfă, with about 700 million RON losses. The podium is completed by Tarom, a company subordinated to the Ministry of Transport, which totalled losses of 439 million RON. Other companies with colossal losses are CFR Călători, Metrorex and Romaero. Five of the companies with the biggest losses are under the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.
Incompetence, rewarded by millions of RON
Even though the financial results of these companies are disastrous, the people in management positions receive very high compensation. For example, members of the board of directors of Complex Energetic Oltenia receive more than 500,000 RON annually. At Tarom, because the company he runs had losses of "only" €100 million, the CEO was paid 37,000 RON a month and each board member receives 12,500 RON.
For all these reasons FACIAS demands that political appointments must stop and performance must come first.
