Dumitru Chirice, the former president of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), now an adviser at the same institution, has political support for a new position: Deputy CEO of Electrica Furnizare, according to market sources. On the other hand, he may lose his position as an adviser to NARE after the implementation of a package of laws on fiscal measures and reduction of budget expenditures.

Essentially, the position at Electrica Furnizare has just been vacated, having been vacated by Claudio Daniel Redulescu. Dumitru Chirice did not respond to HotNews.ro’s request to confirm this information.

At the same time, there is no certainty that Dumitru Cirica will be able to keep his current seat at ANRE because of the austerity laws that the Romanian government took responsibility for in parliament in September. “We will apply the law ad-literam (…) We will have to reduce not only the number of advisers in the cabinet of high-ranking persons, but we will also have to intervene in management positions and identify vacancies for elimination,” Gheorghe-Sergiu Niculescu said on Tuesday , the current chairman of ANRE, during the annual conference organized by InvesTenergy.

Sinecures from ANRE paid thousands of euros

Recently, HotNews.ro wrote that the energy regulator will still be managed from the shadows by the same people who were in charge until April. Former President Dumitru Chirice (PSD) did not leave ANRE after the end of his term, but was appointed to a phantom position, an expert position in the Cabinet of Vice Presidents, from which he managed to organize a parallel administration of the institution, based on loyalty to the directors appointed during his period , sources from the market informed HotNews.ro.

Upon HotNews.ro’s request, ANRE reported that Dumitru Chirica was appointed as an expert in the Cabinet of Vice Presidents during the term of Vice President Andronache Gabriel (with the support of the PSD). Answering questions about the amounts with which money is currently paid to him, NARE representatives state that they are confidential in accordance with Art. 163 par. (1) of Law 53/2003 and the collective labor agreement. According to HotNews.ro sources, the remuneration will be around 5,000 euros per month.

This is a useless feature, given that ANRE has a 13-person Advisory Board appointed by the Prime Minister and made up of specialists from several sectors with energy interests. They are not remunerated and every decision taken by the regulatory board must be subject to an advisory opinion formulated by the board.

We will remind you that Dumitru Chirice headed ANRE in 2017-2023, before that he was an electrician, a trade unionist, and then a PSD deputy. As president of ANRE, he achieved a salary of 60,000 lei per month, according to the latest wealth declaration filed last year.

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