The shareholders of Electrica are to appoint new members of the board of directors at the general meeting on January 26, 2024. There is a final list of 13 candidates for 7 positions, according to Electrica. Among them, two are proposals of the Ministry of Energy, as a shareholder. One of them is Dragos Štefan Roibu, the minister’s chief of staff and a business partner of the Burduja family, who also sued Hidroelectrica, causing a scandal. The second is Dumitru Chirice, the controversial former head of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), who was alternately an electrician, a trade unionist and then PSD deputy.

How the minister’s chief of staff tried to get into Hydroelectricity / Plus: CV is unclear

Dear Stéphane Roibou. According to a resume published on Electrica’s website, he joined Sebastián Bourdugia when he was Minister of Research, Innovation and Digitalisation. In addition, the resume shows that he was even appointed as the director of investments in this ministry, a position he still holds. It is not clear how he can be the investment director of Research and the director of the Energy cabinet at the same time.

Before replacing Sebastian Burduja, he was the general manager of CET Grivița from January 2020 to May 2022.

His resume also states that from April 2012 until now (!?) he was an entrepreneur (!?) at Teletrans SA. We clarify that Teletrans is a subsidiary of Transelectrica, which specializes in providing IT&C services for the parent company.

In 2011, he graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest.

HotNews.ro wrote about how he tried to get into Direction Hidroelectrica and the scandal that occurred after he and other politically supported people were not shortlisted. For this reason, the procedure for selecting members of the Hydroelectric Directorate was blocked for several weeks. The Ministry of Energy even sent a supervisory body to check the selection procedure, but found nothing wrong.

According to Termene.ro, Dragos Štefan Rojbu owns the company Dynamic Energy Systems SRL together with the minister’s sister Medalina Ana Burduja in equal shares.

This enterprise has been inactive since 2016, it was restored on September 13, 2023. The main type of activity is “Engineering and technical consulting”.

Dumitru Chirice did not finish his studies

Dumitru Chirica (60 years old). According to a resume on Electrica’s website, he graduated from the Faculty of Law and International Relations at the University of Nicolae Titulescu and received a master’s degree from the Faculty of Law at the University of Bucharest. However, he did not name the years when these studies were to be completed.

Moreover, even in the resume published on the website of the Chamber of Deputies, for the period when he was a parliamentarian from the PSD, the years of study are not indicated.

But this did not become an obstacle to his appointment to important positions, such as the head of NARE from October 2017 to April 2023, although his tangents to the energy sector were not very relevant.

The resume on the Electrica website did not mention him, but the resume on the Chamber of Deputies website indicated that Chirice was an electrician in the past. From 1981 to 1990, he was even a substitute electrician. Then, until 1999, he was a trade union activist.

In 2011, Romania Curată wrote that Dumitru Cirita was a shareholder of SC Sindserv SA, a company controlled by Federația Energia Mileniului III, which was responsible for reading electricity meters and benefited from monetary contracts with Electrica SA.

Between 2000 and his appointment as President of ANRE, he was deputy three times, with a break between 2004 and 2008 when he was Vice-President of the National Health Insurance Fund.

As head of ANRE, Chirice was repeatedly accused by the public of mismanaging the energy crisis. In fact, at the height of the scandal related to the electricity bills, Chirice went on vacation to the Dominican Republic, according to cursdeguvernare.ro.

The liberalization of the energy market in late 2020-early 2021 was also poorly managed, creating chaos and panic as household consumers did not know what to do. Most consumers only learned after liberalization that they had to contract with free market suppliers to benefit from better prices. Even then, Chirice did not want to go public to give an explanation.

After the transfer of the powers of the head of NARE in April 2023, he remained at the institution until October 2023 as an expert in the office of the vice president.

He is currently the deputy general manager of Electrica Furnizare, a position that HotNews.ro wrote he was going to get even before his appointment.

Other offers at Electrica, three with comments

The list of 13 candidates includes those registered by law, in conditions where they are already administrators, and others are self-proposed. Three of them have comments from the Appointments and Remuneration Committee, which means they have less chance of getting an administrator position.

The final list in alphabetical order:

• Georgiana Bogasevichi, proposed by the shareholder Societatea de Administrare a Participaciols en Energie (SAPE). The Appointments and Remuneration Committee says that this candidate “does not meet the conditions of independence, he holds a senior position in a local state body (Ilfov County Council).” In addition, it does not correspond to the “Profile of the board approved by the VKA on November 11, 2015”.
• Julian Christian Bosoancaadministrator in the office, duly registered in the list of candidates
• Dumitru Chiritaproposed by the Romanian state shareholder represented by the Ministry of Energy
• Daniel Zirlig, proposed by shareholder Daniel Zirlig. The Nomination and Remuneration Committee found “inconsistency with the Profile of the Board of Directors approved by the HCA on November 11, 2015.”
• Council Mircea Florescuadministrator in the office, duly registered in the list of candidates
• Giku Yorgaadministrator in the office, registered by right in the list of candidates
• Adrien-Florin Lautreinadministrator in the office, duly registered in the list of candidates
• Marian Christian Mocanu, proposed by shareholder Marian Christian Mocanu. The Nomination and Remuneration Committee found “inconsistency with the Profile of the Board of Directors approved by the HCA on November 11, 2015.”
• Dragos-Valentin Neatsuadministrator in the office, legally registered in the list of candidates
• Ion-Cosmin Petrescuadministrator in the office, registered by right in the list of candidates
• Radu Ioan Puscariuproposed by Radu shareholder Ioan Puscariu
• Dragos Stefan Roybuproposed by the Romanian state shareholder represented by the Ministry of Energy
• Valentina Olena Syklovanan administrator legally registered in the list of candidates