The European Commission accuses a conflict of interests in appointing AMEPIP management

According to a document submitted to the Ciolacu government by the European Commission, Victor Moraru, one of the close associates of Deputy Prime Minister Marian Neacşu, is suspected of incompatibility and conflict of interest for the way he became vice president of the Agency for Monitoring and Evaluation of the Performance of Public Enterprises (AMEPIP), the agency that will check the management within the companies with state capital. The establishment of AMEPIP is among the reforms assumed by Romania in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan considered not yet fulfilled by the European Commission, a reform whose failure blocks payment request number 3, worth 2 billion euros.

At the end of last year, Mihai Precup became president of AMEPIP, and Victor Moraru, close to Deputy Prime Minister Marian Neacşu, and the liberal Ciprian Hojda were appointed vice-presidents. However, it seems that the election of Victor Moraru as AMEPIP vice-president does not meet the transparency and competition criteria necessary for this reform, according to the recent document sent by the European Commission to the Government. Practically, Victor Moraru would have become incompatible when he participated in the selection of the members of the commission that would later appoint him to the position of vice president of AMEPIP, a fact that translates into a conflict of interests.

We mention that, prior to his appointment as AMEPIP vice-president, Victor Moraru was a director within the General Secretariat of the Government, in which capacity he was president of the selection committee for the two representatives of the academic environment, part of the committee of independent experts (five people in total) for the selection of the AMEPIP president and vice-presidents. The documents presented as evidence for the selection of representatives of the academic environment are signed and certified by Moraru, in his capacity as president of the selection committee.

In the document sent to the Ciolacu government, the officials of the European Commission state: "In this context, the involvement of one of the candidates in the process of appointing the two representatives of the academic environment in the selection committee in charge of evaluating their own candidacy and subsequent appointments as vice-president of AMEPIP does not complies with a competitive process, based on merit and transparent appointment criteria. Based on the information received, it appears that the selection process does not contain a procedure to avoid possible incompatibilities or situations of conflict of interest". Therefore, the European officials asked the Bucharest Executive to clarify what checks/procedure Romania carried out during the evaluation of Victor Moraru's candidacy to avoid such situations and to guarantee compliance with a selection based on merit and transparent appointment criteria.

The situation regarding the illegality of the appointment of Victor Moraru was reported as early as January 30, 2024 by an integrity whistleblower, who in a document addressed to Mircea Abrudan, the Secretary General of the Government showed that the social democrat Adrian Ţuţuianu, former minister of of National Defence, was the president of the commission that selected Victor Moraru as vice-president of AMEPIP.

The European Commission also points out that the entire management of AMEPIP - president Mihai Precup and vice-presidents Victor Moraru and Ciprian Hojda - would not have the required experience to occupy such a position.

The document submitted by the Community Executive to the Ciolacu government states: "In accordance with the provisions of the law and the competition announcement, candidates for the positions of president or vice president of AMEPIP must have 10 years of professional experience in the economic or financial field, in management or legal, of which at least 7 years in executive functions in the public administration, during which they exercised management or supervisory functions of public enterprises. Based on the information received, it is still unclear how these conditions are met for the three nominated candidates and how the accumulated experience was calculated based on the evidence provided (CVs)".

Moreover, the European Commission points out that most of the new agency's employees are appointed on secondment, which shows that the new institution cannot be considered fully operational.

"AMEPIP currently has 53 employees (including the president and two vice-presidents), out of a total of 92 planned positions, resulting in an occupancy rate of 57%. For the moment, 47 positions are filled through 6-month secondments. While Romania explained that recruitment for 25 additional posts is ongoing and will be completed by the end of June, no decision has been made on what will happen to the 47 posts subject to secondment to end of secondment period (1 July 2024 for most posts). By the way, based on a preliminary review of the evidence provided, it appears that the selection process does not meet the criteria of transparency and open competition required by the CID and further evidence is required to establish whether the task force is operational as set out in M440, which refers to "operational (ie legally mandated and endowed with resources)", specifies the European Commission.

Following this analysis, Brussels officials consider that the milestone set out in the PNRR is not met, which has negative effects on the unblocking of payment request number 3.