On Monday, the Government approved a draft law that amends and supplements the Government’s Emergency Resolution No. 109/2011 on corporate governance of state-owned enterprises, and one of the new elements is the creation of a new Agency for monitoring and evaluating the activities of state-owned enterprises.

According to the announcement of the Government, the draft law will represent the achievement of milestones determined by the National Development and Reform Commission as part of the reform on improving the procedural principles of implementing the principles of corporate governance at state-owned enterprises.

The most important changes concern the following aspects:

• Separation of the function of regulation from the function of coordination of state property or administrative-territorial units as shareholders;
• Development of a property policy to determine the basis of ownership of state or administrative-territorial units of state-owned enterprises at the central and local levels, establishing the role of the state and administrative-territorial unit in the management of public enterprises, as well as the role and duties of public guardianship bodies and other interested persons who participate in its implementation.

The development and revision of the policy of state participation in the economy will comply with the OECD guidelines and will clearly delineate the roles and responsibilities of all involved entities.

Dan Carbunaru, the government spokesman, announced other new elements of this bill at the end of the government meeting, respectively:

• Creation of the Agency for Monitoring and Evaluation of State Enterprises (AMEPIP). This structure will operate under the leadership of the Government and under the coordination of the Prime Minister through the SGG.
• Establishment of a body of administrators of public enterprises, which will be established as a database organized and managed by AMEPIP and which will include a list of individuals and legal entities registered as eligible for selection and appointment as administrators in public enterprises.
• These individuals and legal entities will be able to apply on an equal footing with persons who are not registered with the body of administrators of state-owned enterprises in the recruitment and nomination processes for the positions of administrators of state-owned enterprises.

The bill also contains other proposals to amend the legislation to ensure the implementation of the principles of corporate governance contained in the OECD Guidelines for Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises.