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Another 15-20 state-owned companies might be included on list of IMF monitored comapnies
Another 15-20 state-owned companies in the months to come might included on the lost of the companies monitored by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said chief of the IMF mission Jeffrey Franks in an interview to Agerpres on Monday.
Currently the IMF list includes 18 state-owned companies: the National Railway Company CFR, CFR Calatori, the National Company of Motorways and National Roads, the National Black Coal Company, Termoelectrica, Metrorex, CFR Marfa, Electrocentrale in Bucharest, the CFR Electrifying Company, the Romanian Post, Tarom, the Power Complex at Turceni, the branch of the Electrica Serv Maintenance and Energy Services, Electrica Furnizare Transilvania Nord, Oltchim, the Oltenia National Brown Coal Company, Railway Assistance and CFR Telecommunications.
The target for these companies in point of the operational result and arrears has been achieved in the first quarter of 2011. But this is only a minimum condition. One has to do much more than that by carrying out some reforms in these companies. The Government presented us an action plan which we have studied in detail and are working on the measures deriving from this plan that must be implemented in the next 12-18 months, said the IMF official.
He made it clear that in certain cases the majority stakes held by the state would have to be privatized, in others, the minority stakes, some companies would be restructured and in other cases one would have to consider their being closed down.
We are sure to adjust the list of the monitored companies. In the months to come we shall examine the action plans the Government has prepared for other companies too. Probably we shall consider another sample of 15-20 big state-owned companies and shall concentrate on improving their activity, said the IMF representative.
Government will seek international consultancy companies to recruit new managers for state owned companies
The state will commit to use international human resources companies to recruit the future managers of some state owned companies that register debts. This is a revolution in the way the positions were offered so far. So far, these positions were attributed following negotiations in the government and none of the managers were liable for the weak performance of the companies they managed.
The new managers will have salaries correlated to their performance and will receive a free hand in terms of any restructuring ideas, sources said. President Basescu was one of the main supporters of this idea of the IMF but parties were a bit reluctant in applying it.
Finance ministry Gheorghe Ialomitianu said that the government introduces a program to cut the state’s debts to the private sector, a program to cut spending in the budgetary system and to cut stocks companies accumulated. He said that the state owned companies will have to report on a quarterly and yearly basis.
If the government fails to privatize, or partially privatize, or restructure the state owned companies then the last option is to shut them down, Romania’s representative to the IMF Mihai Tanasescu said. He said that the IMF monitors and diagnoses about 150 state owned national and local companies.