​Valeriu Zgonia, the new president of the communications regulatory authority (ANCOM), wants to cut 108 management positions from the current 167 in order to implement the provisions of law 296/2023 on financial budgetary measures, according to a document seen by HotNews. .ro. None of the 741 employees will be laid off, but wages will be reduced for those who are cut.

ANCOM acts as an arbiter in the communications market worth 16.9 billion lei. The average net salary exceeds 10,000 lei

The Communications Regulatory Authority (ANCOM) is, along with ANRE and ASF, one of the bodies subordinate to Parliament, which is self-financed by fees levied on players in regulated markets and which must cut costs by 31 December 2023. in accordance with the law 296/2023 on financial budget measures adopted by the Çolaku government.

ANCOM controls the telecommunications sector, dominated by the giants Orange, Vodafone and RCS&RDS/DIGI, which generated 16.9 billion lei in revenue last year.

The average net salary at ANCOM last year was 10,404 lei, and performance bonuses averaged 5,848 lei for 295 employees. According to the information sent to HotNews.ro at the request of the management of the body, during 2023, no rewards based on the results of the work were assigned and will not be assigned.

There will be no layoffs of 741 employees

The authority led by Valeriu Zgonia has recently submitted a proposal to the ANCOM workers’ union to restructure the institution, a document seen by HotNews.ro, on which they are awaiting an opinion until December 15, 2023.

The management of ANCOM states that “the main objective is to preserve the employment relationship of all current employees, in this sense it will grant them the rights granted by Law 296/2023, including the transfer to the position of executive or the transformation of the transformation of the management position to the position of executive, if there is no corresponding vacant management position , which can be filled, that is, the transformation of a management position into a management position of a lower level.”

Only 59 management positions will remain. What directions will be combined

The new organizational chart proposed by Valeriu Zgonia aims to preserve 741 positions after the elimination of vacant positions, as required by law 296/2023, but foresees the reduction of 108 management positions through the merger of certain areas or the elimination of others.

• “The organizational structure was built based on the two requirements provided by law 296/2023, which directly relate to the availability of management positions, in accordance with the requirements to comply with certain personnel provisions in the case of authorities such as ANCOM, necessary for the creation of a service/department. (10 subordinate positions), management (20 subordinate positions), executive/general management (35 subordinate positions), as well as regarding the establishment of the number of managerial positions in the amount of no more than 8% of the total number of approved positions. (currently 741 positions, after liquidation of vacant positions, in accordance with the terms of Article XVII of Law No. 296/2023, Decision of the ANCOM President No. 874/2023), as a result, the maximum number of management positions in the entire institution was 59, compared to 167, which were before the law came into force (which is 26% of the total number of positions at the structural level (in the case of regional departments within the Executive Directorate of Monitoring and Control), 21% of the total number of positions at the structural level (at the level of the headquarters of the Executive Directorate of Monitoring and Control) ), 28 % of the total number of positions at the level of the structure (at the level of the Regulatory Executive Directorate), 25% of the total number of positions at the level of the structure (at the level of the Executive Directorate of Radio Frequency Spectrum Administration and Numbering) and 15% of the total number of positions at the level of the structure (at the level of the General Secretariat).». this is shown in a document provided by HotNews.ro.

The restructuring will lead to the reduction of three executive directorates to two, the executive departments of regulation and radio frequency spectrum will be combined, which are now headed by 2 former vice presidents of ANCOM, Eduard Lovin and Bohdan Yana, telecommunication engineers, non-affiliated politicians who have ten years of experience in the authorities .

The Executive Directorate for Monitoring and Control, now headed by Christine Popa (PNL), an engineer with over 20 years of experience at ANCOM, will be retained.

Other restructuring proposals made:

• if there is special legislation in this matter that requires the creation of a separate department in the organizational structure (in areas such as state audit, health and safety at work, classified documents), there will also be structures that do not comply with the personnel regulations, but without official driving;
• the same principle will be applied in the case of structures that must retain their functional autonomy under the terms of the Standards governing their activities (eg LICETER) or other structures where, although they carry out personnel provisions, in conjunction with the rest of the functions management, s- will exceed the maximum percentage of 8% of the total number of approved positions;
• considering the abolition of the functions of the head of the office/office/training/laboratory produced by ANCOM Presidential Decision no. 874/2023, according to the terms of the same law;
• the clear prohibition, mentioned in Law No. 296/2023, not to create new positions until July 1, 2024, which led to the need for a merger through the absorption of current structures and the preservation of the current number of positions (741);
• thus, the proposed structures were constructed where necessary by incorporating other structures/activity streams, activity streams being monitored and/or logically placing them in enriched structures, leadership positions at the level of structures that absorbed smaller or less complex structures that are accordingly enriched with new additional attributes;
• executive personnel from structures that have merged with other larger or more complex structures in terms of authority will be accepted in them, without excluding the possibility of redistribution to other structures depending on specific needs to ensure the overall functionality of the organization chart; (..)
• homogenous activities that are currently spread over several structures, either in headquarters or in regional departments (legal activities, economic activities, IT activities, public relations, as well as licensing activities as part of spectrum management) , were presented under the auspices of a single hierarchical body at the headquarters level, which will ensure not only a unified approach to tasks and a higher degree of standardization, but also the elimination of redundancies for a stable result; positions related to activity streams that will change their hierarchical and functional subordination will remain at the place of work in the settlements where they currently work;
• the function of monitoring and control remains the central and essential object of territorial structures of ANCOM, which perform the role of implementation of ANCOM’s policy in the spheres of authority’s competence;
• moving certain positions that compete for the same processes within the organization so that they are no longer fragmented unnaturally at the level of several departments, in the sense that they must be transferred within the departments responsible for these processes.

ANCOM trade union: The elimination of support services will affect the activities of regional directorates

In a response sent on December 4 by the ANCOM employees’ union to Valeriu Zgonia, a document seen by HotNews.ro, the unions are asked to report on the impact of the new organizational chart on work processes.

In addition, they warn that no auxiliary service (economic-administrative, legal advisor, etc.) is included in the structure of regional directorates, which will lead to a serious disruption of the functioning of the remaining services within the regional directorates, including irreparable damage from the administration of assets that are part of ANCOM’s property.

“What do you know about 5G other than 5?” How candidates from PSD and PNL, who will be headed by the Telecom Arbiter, did not know how to answer basic technical questions

​On Tuesday, October 10, 2023, the plenary session of the parliament approved Vlad Bontea (PSD) and Pavel Popescu (PNL) as vice-presidents of ANCOM, the body that regulates the almost 3.5 billion euro electronic communications market.

At the hearing, two deputies did not know how to answer basic technical questions in telecommunications and have 3 months to leave the parties they belong to so that there is no incompatibility.