The state companies that cannot be saved must be closed and they are on a recently drawn up list, which is a priority and will be communicated, said Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan on Friday, during a conference in which he explained the causes and effects of the austerity measures imposed.
State companies that cannot be saved must be closed. Archive photo
“A issue that was discussed in yesterday's government meeting, namely improving the management of state companies. State companies manage important segments of economic activity, energy, transport, other areas, military, armaments production. And the subsidies we grant, which are billions of lei every year, depend on the way they are managed, the losses they record every year, which, again, are billions of lei every year, and on the failure to capitalize on important assets that, once introduced into the economic circuit, private companies, local authorities could put into value. And then we identified a package of companies where, both at the governmental level, at the level of the ministries, at the level of AMPIP, but also from the management of these companies, we must intervene so that starting next year, from the beginning of the year, not from the end of the year, as we did this year, to put into practice plans that improve their activity“, said Ilie Bolojan in a press conference at the Victoria Palace.
The Prime Minister stated that “those state companies that cannot be saved must be closed”.
“Those that must be maintained, but have losses, must reduce their losses, must improve their services, must make reforms. We have companies, 27, which are in a difficult situation, have negative equity. Only last year they had losses of 1.2 billion and they are accumulating another 5 billion from the past, over 5 billion. If we don't intervene, they will still remain a black hole. I'm on a priority list. We will let you know”said Bolojan.
He added that they are “other public enterprises, which have systematic losses”.
“There are about 83 companies that have outstanding payments of 6.5 billion lei, of which 30% are to the state budget and the difference – to partners, private companies and so on. We need to intervene in these companies because they benefit from important subsidies, in 2024 alone they collected over 8 billion lei in subsidies. Every leu saved from these subsidies could be used in Education, Health or other investments“, Bolojan explained.
The Head of Government mentioned that there are state companies that have not presented recovery plans.
“They did not present their plans this year either. It is hard to imagine how they are tolerated. And we will not enter the next year without having these restructuring plans concluded in December, so that we do not end up in this situation again. We also have smaller companies, with fewer employees, which are in a situation where they no longer carry out activities that have been in accordance with their object of activity since their establishment and which can be closed without any problem, because they are only a source of expenses for the budget“, he claimed.
The prime minister stated that the lists of companies with problems have been established.
“The responsibility will be with each ministry that represents the tutelary authority and with a working group that will be coordinated by Mrs. Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu. The reform of state companies is a must and we have to do it and it will be a basic element including the budget component for the next year“, said Bolojan.
