The Salrom management, vehement after the publication of the report on the Salina Praid disaster. The Minister of Economy accused of providing truncated information

The management of the state company considers the statements of the Minister of Economy “derogatory and unfounded”. For his part, Radu Miruţă demanded the resignation of the management and took it to court.

Salina Praid PHOTO: Inquam Photos/Alex Nicodim

The Prime Minister's Control Body (CCPM) has completed the checks at the National Salt Company SA (SNS SA) and the National Administration “Romanian Waters” (ANAR), action started after the flooding of Salina Praid in May 2025

According to the conclusions established following the checks, the risk of flooding the underground spaces of the salt pan and affecting the deposit was underestimated and constantly qualified by the representatives of SNS SA as not being an imminent danger.

Consequently, the planning of the technical and organizational measures for the protection of the deposit did not reflect a strategy of the exploitation license holder for the protection of the salt deposits, the exploited underground spaces and the equipment used, the Report states.

The implemented measures did not aim to eliminate the risk of flooding, being mainly made up of maintenance works with short-term effects or emergency intervention in case of breakdowns, without these also including landscaping works (from the category of investment works) to ensure the long-term protection of the salt pan.

Also, the approval of the annual exploitation programs at the Salina Praid Branch was characterized by formalism, all the more so since the technical measures presented by SNS SA in the respective programs could not be related to a reference technical normative framework, states the Report.

The lack of reference technical norms resulted in the ineffectiveness of the coercion instrument established by law, which would have made it possible to sanction inaction or measures contrary to the norms regarding the protection of the deposit at the level of SNS SA, the Report also states.

“A succession of exceptional natural factors”

SALROM specifies, in a press release, as a reaction to the conclusions of the Report drawn up by the Prime Minister's Control Body following the events of May at Salina Praid, that they were based on “a succession of exceptional natural factors”, determined by the very high flow of the Corund stream (64 mc/s), which significantly exceeded the calculated values ​​(50 mc/s, flow established by ANAR/ABA Mureş), as being the maximum flow supported by the bed of Pârâului Corund.

“The only technical solutions so that the flow borne by the stream bed would not exceed 50 mc/s would have been the upstream regularization and the diversion of the Corund Stream – works that fell under the responsibility of ANAR”says SALROM.

Salrom adds that “it would be useful” as the current Minister of the Environment “to publicly clarify” whether or how the money allocated for the regularization of water courses in Harghita was used, starting in 2022.

Salrom management states that in the last three years, the company “allocated all the necessary sums” for the protection of the salt deposit, the underground spaces and the equipment used, according to the annual investment programs. “In 2023 and 2024, the Annual Investment Program was modified, by increasing the amounts allocated to the Praid Branch.

In the current year, starting in June, the funds for the Praid Branch were supplemented by redirecting the amounts allocated to other ongoing investments at the company's other branches. Salrom annually transfers at least 90% of the net profit made to the state budget, according to the Memorandum received from the Ministry of Finance”, the company states.

“truncated information”

Salrom believes that “itruncated information” placed by the Ministry of Economy, Digitization, Entrepreneurship and Tourism (MEDAT) at the disposal of the Prime Minister's Control Body led, “erroneously”, to the conclusion that Salrom would have the obligation to carry out the closure, post-closure monitoring and greening of the historical mines. “According to the legislation in force and the documents in the possession of both SALROM and the Ministry of Economy, the obligation to close old mines by waterproofing, concreting or other methods falls, unequivocally, on MEDAT by allocating funds from the budget for these works. It seems that the Minister of Economy, Radu-Dinel Miruţă, is suing himself for the inaction of the ministry he leads. More than that, he should explain why he did not respond to the official address registered at MEDAT with no. 442895/11.09.2025, by which SALROM imperatively requested the takeover of all historical mines with a view to their closure”, specify the cited source.

He also believes that the prime minister “must be informed” that it is necessary to allocate funds from the budget to the Ministry of Economy, Digitalization, Entrepreneurship and Tourism, “under the condition” that the Minister of Economy “to realize the fact that he has the legal obligation to close the old mines”.

“If the profitability, the doubling of the turnover, the tripling of the profit and the major investments made for the modernization and re-technology of a company in which almost no investment has been made for decades, are considered “a joke”, then we take this blame for the performance in full. At the same time, we believe that the Minister of Economy must take responsibility for the disparaging and unfounded statements about the company and the work done by its employees, which it did and continues to do, without being documented and legally proven”are the conclusions presented in the cited press release.

Salrom also informs that “publicly invoked lack of communication” to the Minister of Economy “not supported”, since he “did not have any direct dialogue with the general director of the company”, and with the members of the board of directors “he had only one dialogue, in the first week of his mandate, when he asked them to resign without having a legal basis”.

Honorable resignation

The Minister of Economy, Radu Miruţă, stated, after the publication of the Report on the Praid disaster, that he asked the Salrom management to resign with honor, but they refused, that he asked for a meeting, and the management refused, which is why he took it to court.

“It has been confirmed once again. Salrom mocked the Romanians' money and resources. The report of the Prime Minister's Control Body says in black and white what I also said a few weeks ago: the National Salt Company has disastrously managed the resources of the Romanian state”. wrote the Minister of Economy on Facebook.

And the Minister of the Environment, Diana Buzoianu, conveyed that the document confirms, once again, that the decision to dismiss the former director of Romanian Waters and to undertake deep reforms was a correct decision.

“The report of the Prime Minister's Control Body after the disaster at Salina Praid is public. The findings are clear: at Salina Praid, the flood risk was underestimated, the measures taken were only temporary, and the necessary investments for real protection were postponed. This document confirms, once again, that the decision to dismiss the former director of Romanian Waters and to undertake deep reforms for this institution was a fair, objective decision based on facts, not impressions“, says Minister Diana Buzoianu, in a post on Facebook.