The competition for the leadership of Transelectrica is conducted according to the law, but the candidates are politically screened

The future members of the Directorate of the national company Transelectrica SA - whose selection procedure is underway - would satisfy the short-term and long-term political interests of the PSD-PNL governing coalition, sources from inside told BURSA newspaper exclusively the company.

The cited sources specified: "Although information was thrown on the media market regarding the disastrous results of the current management of the company, results that are recorded in a report of the Court of Accounts that would soon be approved and published, in fact the appeals for the replacement of some members of the Directorate concern the satisfaction of some party interests. This is the only way to explain the fact that Ştefăniţă Munteanu, former county councilor in Buzău and son of Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, president of the current Directorate of Transelectrica SA, is certain that he will remain in the future composition of this structure, while other people, who proved inconvenient in recent years, they would be replaced. For example, one of the persons targeted for replacement, but who submitted his candidacy for a new mandate as a member of the Directorate, opposes the signing of connection contracts for two projects in the field of renewable energy that would be carried out in the geographical area controlled by the current European deputy Mihai Tudose. The opposition to the signing is justified by the lack of a document, but the social democrats' political interest in concluding the contracts is immense, taking into account that the respective projects would be sold to a company controlled by an Israeli, and the commission related to the sale will amount to at least 3 million euros. However, in these moments when the presidential and parliamentary election campaigns are approaching, any amount is needed to promote the PSD".

With regard to the respective projects, we mention that, based on the documents and information received by our Editorial Office, the other day we sent requests both to the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) and to Transelectrica with questions to which we await the response of the two institutions.

As for the report of the Court of Accounts, it shows that Transelectrica was forced in court to pay over 30 million lei in salaries, bonuses and penalties to former illegally fired bosses, and it did not do everything it could to win these processes. Currently, there are still other lawsuits pending, so the amount could increase. The cited document also mentions that the Transelectrica Directorate granted salary increases to employees that cost it more than 35 million lei in only 3 years, but also bonuses that reach up to 20,000 lei, but without any justification and without being reflected by performance or to be motivated by some special occasion. The auditors from the Court of Accounts also claim that the members of the Supervisory Board and the Directorate each received up to 55,050 lei gross/month, sums that exceeded the maximum level that could be granted to them.

The cited document mentions: "During the 2020-2022 period, the granting of special premiums and salary additions was carried out against the background of the full non-use of the salary increase provided for by the Revenue and Expenditure Budget, of the non-filling of all existing vacancies in the organization chart of the entity and for which funds were provided in the budget, as well as the non-use of some amounts with a special purpose provided for in the BVC (meal vouchers, holiday vouchers, electricity quota, the value of medical leaves requested to be paid by the company and borne by the Health Insurance Fund) and later redistributed in the form of bonuses and wage increases. (...) The entity, in the conditions in which it did not prove the evaluation of the individual professional performances of the employees for the period 2020-2022, the evaluation sheets of the individual professional performances of the employees not being drawn up, as well as without mentioning the actions with a major impact carried out by each of the employees in carrying out the activities carried out within the entity, granted premiums of a special nature, without justifying the conditions provided for in art. 4.15 (2) of the CCM (collective employment contract). (...) Also, CNTEE Transelectrica SA, in the period 2020-2022, granted wage increases in the amount of 16,917,168 lei (8,410 lei/employee) which were not justified under the conditions of art. 7.2 of the CCM, respectively through the concluded protocols (Protocols no. 43288/22.10.2020, no. 49543/23.11.2020, no. 19142/29.04.2021, no. 1680/12.01.2022, etc.), the purpose was not mentioned granting them, the legal holiday or the special event, as provided by the CCM".

Other negative aspects recorded by the Court of Accounts are the fact that the staff recruitment/promotion process and did not fully meet the conditions established by the applicable legal framework, own rules/regulations, the temporary promotion of staff in management positions was not carried out, in all cases, with the fulfillment of the requirements in the job description, fixed-term positions were filled, established apart from those approved by the Organizational Chart, even without the organization of a competition/examination that would ensure conditions of full equality with other candidates from inside or outside the entity.

In order to remedy all these deficiencies, the Court of Accounts grants the members of the Transelectrica SA Directorate the deadline of December 30, 2024.

It seems, however, that this report, even if it also includes acts committed in 2023 when the company was led by Ştefăniţă Munteanu, the son of Marcel Ciolacu, will not lead to his change from office, according to our sources, this being practically the head of the list for nomination in the future Directorate.

• Governing coalition favorites

The quoted sources claim that of the 38 people who signed up to become members of the Transelectrica Directorate, only those with strong political support will be able to occupy the respective position.

The respective sources told us: "The first is Ştefăniţă Munteanu, the son of Marcel Ciolacu. Do you think anyone on the recruiting committee will allow themselves to take this one out of the running? The second on the list is Victor Moraru, former president of AMEPIP, who was recently forced to resign from that position following the pressure exerted by the European Commission, which found the non-transparency of the recruitment process. Moraru was saved by the deputy prime minister Marian Neacşu who appointed him secretary of state within the SGG, a position from which it seems that he will jump directly to that of a member of the Transelectrica Directorate. The short list of nominees could include Adrian Moraru, former member of the Directorate, member of the Board of Directors of the company Alsys with businesses in the field of renewables, who would be supported by the liberal leader Robert Sighiartău. And Florin Vasile Tătaru could keep his position, if we take into account the fact that he is the protege of Alfred Simonis, former president of the Chamber of Deputies, future president of the Timiş County Council. However, in the case of Tătaru, it seems that the post is being hunted by the ex-wife of the social-democratic deputy Gabriel Zetea, Liana Ioan, who lately is trying to gather compromising information about the current member of the Transelectrica Directorate. Another favorite to appear on the short list of nominees is Cătălin Nadolu, former head of the Cindrel hotel in Păltiniş, a position from which he met and befriended former liberal leaders Florin Cîţu and Dan Vîlceanu, through whom he ended up occupying the same day the position of director in the General Secretariat of the Government and that of a member in the Transelectrica Directorate. Nadolu was supported within the PNL by the former first vice-president Iulian Dumitrescu, former president of the Prahova Local Council, by Hubert Thuma - the president of the Ilfov County Council, but also by the leaders of the PNL Giurgiu".

According to the information received, another favorite for occupying one of the five positions as a member of the Transelectrica Directorate, is Bogdan Toncescu, who would be protected by the group of liberals from Cluj, around the mayor Emil Boc, but also by the current SGG, Mircea Abrudean. Balaci Daniel, director of maintenance within Transelectrica, who deals with the approval of solution studies for the granting of technical approvals for connection, could also appear on the short list as long as our sources claim that he is the protege of Gabriel Andronache, the vice-president of ANRE.

Although it appeared in the print media the other day that Gheorghe Cristian Vişan, who has over 24 years of professional experience in the energy sector, could be on the short list, our sources at Transelectrica SA believe that this is unlikely, because Vişan does not have the necessary political support.

"Ioana-Laura Chiriţă, the daughter of the former head of ANRE, Dumitru Chiriţă, Alina Filipoiu (formerly Teodoru) could also be on the short list - who also ran unsuccessfully for the position of member of the Supervisory Board, although she has the support of some former members of the SGG, Monac Cosmin - who would have the support of the liberal leader Hubert Thuma, but also Bogdan Grecia, close to the vice-president of ANCOM, Pavel Popescu. Grecia became the manager of the internal audit department in Transelectrica, without having completed an audit course until his appointment, and previously he was also a member of the company's Board of Directors until the local elections in the fall of 2020", they also told us cited sources.

• Chairman of the nomination commission, son of Deputy Prime Minister Marian Neacşu

The procedure provides that the future Board of Directors of Transelectrica SA will be chosen by the Nomination and Remuneration Committee within Supervisory Council, and the actual appointment will be made by the Supervisory Board. However, the headship of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee is held by Alexandru-Cristian Vasilescu who, according to the information provided by whistleblower Ştefan Jicol, former director of SGG, is the son of Deputy Prime Minister Marian Neacşu and son of candidate Victor Moraru. Vasilescu is also a member of the new Supervisory Board of Transelectrica, having been appointed there through a selection of a committee made up of five members, two of whom were officials of AMEPIP (the institution previously led by Victor Moraru and subordinated to SGG), an expert of the recruitment company Pluri Consultants - the one that also deals with the recruitment of members of the Transelectrica Directorate - and two representatives of the General Secretariat of the Government, subordinate to the Deputy Prime Minister Marian Neacşu.

In these conditions, it is hard to believe for the simple candidates without political support that they will fight in this procedurally controlled situation and through the provisions of GEO 31/2024 which allow the future Directorate of Transelectrica to be recruited according to the provisions of the old rules provided by GEO 109/2011 and not on those of law 187/2023, provisions that remove the transparency of the entire recruitment process.

The battle for the position of a member of the Directorate is intense because the respective positions are well paid, according to the wealth declarations submitted by the Transelectrica management. For example, Ştefăniţă Munteanu collected last year, since her appointment in April, a net income of 427,595 lei from the position of president of the Directorate at Transelectrica, i.e. a net monthly income of approximately 53,400 lei (10,600 euros), a similar amount for the rest of the Transelectrica management.

Furthermore, the state-owned company is to receive in the next period European funding of 424.4 million euros from the Modernization Fund for nine investment projects for the strengthening and development of high-voltage networks, station upgrades, but also the digitalization of the entire transport network of electricity in our country.

Last year, Transelectrica Company registered a net profit of 219 million lei, down 57% compared to 2022, due to the fact that in 2023 no income was recorded from the capitalization of CPT at the level of the amount from the similar period of the previous year (13 .8 million lei in 2023 compared to 338.5 million lei in 2022), according to a document published at the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB). The total operating revenues of Transelectrica registered a percentage decrease of 25% compared to the same period of the previous year (4.7 billion lei on December 31, 2023 compared to 6.2 billion lei on December 31, 2022), in the context of the significant decrease in revenues from zero-profit activities (balancing market, system services).