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The government has decided to reduce the number of members of the Supervisory Board of the Financial Oversight Authority (ASF), set up on April 29th, from 17 to 11, through an emergency ordinance adopted yesterday.
The number of 17 members was somewhat inconvenient because it would have created factions within the ASF, based on a criterion that wasn't political, namely depending on the status of executive or non executive membership, a tension which is already shaping up within the freshly created institution.
With twelve non-executives the creation of a majority coalition which would have overthrown any decision of the executives was only natural, as the latter aren't in perfect agreement themselves either.
We can't help but admire the insight of the authorities, after just one month.
The law for the creation of the Financial Oversight Authority was passed on April 23rd, the Authority began functioning on April 29th, and the current firm decision to change the number of ASF members was made less than one month later.
We wouldn't be surprised if two days from now, a new change of the structure of the ASF were announced, because if a law is passed after one month, why wouldn't an emergency ordinance be passed after two days?
Even though the vice-president of the ASF Mircea Ursache implied that only the number of non-executive members was going to be reduced, the press release of the government does not make that distinction.
Sources from the parliament claim that just like the members of the ASF were appointed in block, so should the dismissals or the appointments of the reduced number of positions.
According to sources, the parties in the USL coalition will discuss at the end of the week the appointments for the ASF, and will also negotiate with the other parties in the beginning of next week.
• The taxation of the severance packages - "a smoke screen"
The information of the reduction of the number of members of the ASF went almost unnoticed, after the Authority itself, the prime minister and the Minister of Finance provided the press with "juicy" statements about the compensation packages collected by the former members of the entities which preceded the ASF, namely the CNVM, the CSA and the CSSPP, and about how those were going to be taxed at 85%, in a so-called "indecent remuneration tax", like it was called by Victor Ponta.
Last week, the ASF announced that it has not paid out any compensation packages to the management of the CNVM, CSSPP and CSA and that the payments were made by those entities themselves.
"The compensation packages paid out to the former leaders of the entities which were merged into the ASF (up to 9 salaries in the case of the CNVM or up to 19 salaries in the case of the CSA) were paid out by the former entities according to the contracts concluded in the beginning of their officials' terms", according to the press release issued by the ASF on May 30th.
In fact, no compensation packages have been even provided at the CSSPP, and at the CNVM they have not been paid out, according to the statement made for BURSA by former president Carmen Negoiţă.
BURSA wrote on May 31st, that severance packages were only paid out at the CSA.
However, prime-minister Victor Ponta announced on Monday, that he wants an 85% tax on the severance packages which the members of the former regulatory authorities which were merged into the ASF set for themselves. He said this does not represent an income tax, but rather "an indecent remuneration tax".
All of the former regulatory authorities were lumped in together, and the press was set ablaze upon hearing the exorbitant amounts which the former commissioners were paid.
Thus, the prime minister got his wish in yesterday's government meeting.
But the tax can't be applied retroactively, so it is useless in itself. Its only purpose was to serve as a diversion.
The clarification made yesterday by Victor Ponta, that net severance packages of 230,000 Euros were only paid to three of the former members of the Insurance Supervision Commission (CSA), - Dan Constantinescu, Albin Biro and Daniela Popa -, can no longer eliminate the confusion.
The fact that Victor Ponta mentioned the former president of the CSA, Daniel Tudor, currently a vice-president of the ASF, as a negative example, could be taken as a sign that the positions of the executives of the ASF aren't perfectly safe either.
Victor Ponta made the following statement yesterday: "I get it, it's fine that they get well paid, but I think that the salary 25,600 Euros which the president of the CSA was paid in March, for instance, is excessive, and I also think that if those people are so good at their jobs they will find a job in the private sector, where to work and where, of course, no one will pay them such a salary "...
According to the statements made yesterday by prime-minister Ponta, former president Daniel Tudor of the CSA used to earn 188,000 lei per month (40,000 Euros), Carmen Negoiţă, the former president of the CNVM - 80,000 lei per month (18,000 Euros), and Marian Sârbu, the former head of the CSSPP, used to be paid 14,000 Euros.
Daniel Tudor currently holds the position of vice-president of the insurance department at the ASF, and Sârbu is a non-executive member of the ASF.
The ASF is led by Radu Ruşanu, who gets paid a salary of 14,000 Euros per month.
The salary of first vice-president Daniel Dăianu is 95% of that of the president, and the three vice-presidents are paid a monthly salary of 90% of that of the president.
The 12 non-executive members get a salary of 3,600 Euros per month.
The Government yesterday decided that the ASF must pay to the state budget 80% of the surplus of its revenue and expense budget recorded at the end of the year.
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