Two weeks after the appointment, the personal counselor of the Minister of Transport arrived at the Board of Directors of CFR Călaturi. “I have experience, the company is in a delicate situation” / how much will win
Mihai Drăgan, appointed counselor of Minister Ciprian Șerban (PSD) on July 2, arrived, on July 18, a member of CFR Călatori, a function for which he will receive 7,000 lei, about the same amount he receives from the counselor's salary, as he said. In a dialogue with Hotnews, Drăgan says he has submitted his CV alone for this role, and his appointment is temporary. He also says that the Minister of Transport wanted to know “from the inside” with what problems the company faces.
Mihai Drăgan entered the Board of Directors of CFR Călator on July 18, and the appointment is for a limited period, according to the CFR website. Specifically, until December 18, 2025. On the site, it is mentioned, next to Drăgan's name, that it is “politically not affected”.
HotNews asked Mihai Drăgan how he came to his appointment in CFR Călaturi. In the dialogue with Hotnews, he said that the appointment is temporary and “necessary for the institution to continue its activity”.
“We have also been successfully part of other administration councils”
“I have submitted a CV. But it is a temporary appointment. A selection procedure is in progress, from what I know, for the appointment of the administrators, to which I do not participate. I know that this appointment is a temporary one to have the minimum number for the operation of the Board of Directors on the one hand, on the other delicate ”, was the answer given by Drăgan.
Asked if there is any connection between his appointment in CFR Călatori and the fact that he is the personal counselor of the Minister of Transport, Drăgan replied: “I just told you that we wanted to know this issue from the source. But the connection I think is much greater with the fact that I have experience in the field.”
“I am referring to the fact that I am a jurist with 25 years of experience in law, on the one hand, on the other hand I have been successfully part of other administrative councils, not thinking about what is debated in the public space today, but on very small amounts, that is, super decent, and with very good results,” said Mihai Drăgan.
At the same time, Drăgan said that he submitted his CV on his own initiative and did not remember if he did so before or after becoming the personal counselor of Minister Ciprian Șerban.
Mihai Drăgan, also appointed in another Board of Directors, by another PSD minister
According to his CV, published on the website CFR Călator, Drăgan was from February 2019 to February 2020 as a member of “Nexgen Communications SRL”, after being appointed by the Ministry of Communications and Information Society.
During the same period he was also a member of the CA “Telekom Romania Communications SRL” and a member of the Committee of Removal and Nomination to the same company. And in the last cases he was appointed in these functions by the Ministry of Communications and Information Society (a ministry that was subsequently abolished, in November 2019).
In February 2019, when Drăgan was appointed in all these three functions, the Minister of Communications and Information Society was Alexandru Petrescu, from the PSD, and at the management of the Government was Viorica Dăncilă. Petrescu is now the director of the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF).
Before 2020, Drăgan only worked as a lawyer, according to his CV. In 1996, for two months, he was a “analyst” at the Center for the Press of the Party of Social Democracy in Romania, a party that in 2001 merged with the Romanian Social Democrat Party and transformed into PSD.
How much does the personal Transport Minister's personal counselor win as a CAF Călaturi
Mihai Drăgan argues that from the new position of member of CAF Călaturi has a monthly income: “around 7,000 lei”. Asked how much he also wins from the position of personal counselor of the Minister of Transport, Drăgan said that “about the same amount”.
The experience from other CAs says he recommends him to hold this position.
“I exposed you earlier that I am a lawyer, an experienced lawyer, suspended at this moment, with 25 years experience in the field. I mean that this was primordial, the fact that I have experience in the legal field. On the other hand, the fact that I was in other CAs, for example on Telekom, I was a year, and in that year Telekom was a profit in that year.” Drăgan.
Mihai Drăgan also said that he is not politically affiliated: “I am not a member of any political party, and the request to be part of the minister's team is exclusively technical.”
“My duties as a counselor are from a legal perspective, as I told you. That's why I told you about my 25-year experience, because that mattered and when I proposed the position of counselor,” he pointed out.
Was the lawyer of the union leader Ion Rădoi
As a lawyer, Mihai Drăgan was also the legal representative of Ion Rădoi, former union leader from the subway and former parliamentarian, for two mandates (2000-2008), from the PSD.
Drăgan, as a lawyer of Rădoi, issued a point of view at that time in the name of the former union leader from the subway.
Ion Rădoi was at least 15 years the leader of the subway union. As an official biography of his does not exist, his oldest mentions in the press as the leader of the subway union are since 2005, when Rădoi was also senator from the PSD.
What is the situation at CFR Călaturi
According to data from the railway club, CFR Călaturi had, in 2024, losses of 460 million lei. The publication offers the losses of the company registered over the past few years:
- Almost 355 million lei in 2020
- Over 325 million lei in 2021
- Almost 191 million lei in 2022
- Almost 211 million lei in 2023
- 460 million lei in 2024
