The Foundation For The Defense Of Citizens Against State Abuses (FACIAS) has won a court case asking CFR Călători to disclose how much its board members are paid. Now FACIAS has learned that although the company's losses are huge, indicating mismanagement, CFR Călători has increased the compensation of decision-makers by more than 60%.
FACIAS has asked CFR Călători to disclose how much money the state-owned company pays to members of the Board of Directors (BoD). For reasons unknown at the time, but which today can be intuited, the company refused the request, so the foundation sued the state, and the court ruled in its favour. Thus, CFR was obliged to say how much money it gives monthly to those who make decisions on behalf of the company. Well, FACIAS found out that each member receives 7,000 lei each month for attending a single board meeting, as required by law. The total for the 7 members the price the state pays is almost 600,000 lei annually. This is after each member was paid only 4,300 lei until October 2022, until the company decided to increase their allowance by 60%.
WHY IS THIS OUTRAGEOUS?
CFR Călători is a state-owned company that has made a loss of over 800,000 million lei in just 3 years. So not only does the Romanian state not punish incompetence, it also rewards it by increasing the directors' allowances by 60%.
FACIAS's analysis of the situation of state-owned companies in Romania is part of the "No incompetents in public office" campaign, which aims to bring to the forefront the need for real reform in the management of state-owned companies, focusing on competence and performance, not on political criteria or favouritism.