​The State-Owned Enterprise Monitoring and Evaluation Agency – AMEPIP, also known as the super agency that will oversee state-owned companies, is still in the process of being established, seven months after the regulatory framework for the establishment of the agency was approved, according to a response sent to a request by HotNews .ro. The Agency has a management since November 2023, but does not have the employees provided for by HG 617/2023 regarding the organization of AMEPIP.

AMEPIP has a third of the employees provided for in the staff list

“Currently, the Agency is in the full implementation process, measures have been taken to provide it with resources, including human resources, to ensure its functioning, to effectively fulfill the role of monitoring the application of good governance standards, the occupation process, the number of vacant positions in the Agency is dynamic, with 31 employee at the moment, including management,” AMEPIP sent to HotNews.ro’s request.

The legislative framework provides for 97 positions, including the president, two vice presidents and the staff of each cabinet. In addition to the office of the president and vice president, the staffing schedule provides for 88 positions.

“The whole team is working intensively on the implementation of AMEPIP to fulfill the PNRR milestone that will help Romania receive the third tranche of money from the PNRR of 2.6 billion euros,” AMEPIP also relayed.

According to her, the date of implementation “will be brought to the public’s attention by publication on the AMEPIP website and notification to the guardianship authorities.”

Tsutsuianu says AMEPIP could be operational in March

The super agency could be operational next week, Deputy General Secretary of the Government Adrian Tsutsuianu said on Wednesday, according to Radioromania.ro. “I understand it will happen next week,” Tsutsuyanu said.

“And from this moment we begin to do what we have established through the new regulatory framework, which is to initiate selection procedures, to conduct these transparent selection procedures, to select administrators who are professionals, with a four-year mandate, with financial performance indicators and non-financial ones that will lead us to the result we expect: a stronger economy, better managed state-owned enterprises, higher revenues to the state budget,” said Adrian Tsutsuianu.

Who are the heads of the agency

The president is Mihai-Kelin Prekup, who received a 4-year mandate in November 2023. Before his appointment, he was State Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office, and in 2022 – State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance. In 2014-2022, he was a lecturer at several universities, including the Sorbonne, France. In addition, he holds a doctorate in economics from the Sorbonne University in Paris. He also studied at the Western University of Timisoara.

In 2020, he ran for senator from the “Pro Romania” party, which is headed by Victor Ponta, reports Europa Liberă.

One of the vice-presidents is Viktor Moraru, the former mayor of the city of Amara in the county of Jalomica in the period 2000-2016. Muraru graduated from university at the age of 35.

In October 2022, Europa Liberă wrote about Victor Morara that he is a friend of Marian Neatzu, the former head of the General Secretariat of the Government (SGG). Thus, he assumed the position of director in the SGG without the support of a competition for the position, controlling all the funds from the PNRR budget allocated for the reforms and investments of the SGG.

The second vice-president is Ciprian Hoxha. He was a State Counselor in the Prime Minister’s Office from May 2021 – during the Florin Sitsu government – to June 2023.

The Agency is subordinate to the Government and coordinated by the Prime Minister through the General Secretariat of the Government.

Salaries are 50% higher than those of other government employees

Salaries are set in the amount of the maximum level of rights provided for public positions in the Government apparatus, plus 50% to the rest of state employees. In particular, AMEPIP employees are paid 50% more than other public sector employees. Thus, the president will have a gross monthly salary of 38,115 lei, and the vice president – 34,650 lei, Europa Liberă reports.

The Agency’s own revenues will consist of a 30% share related to the applied fines and a monitoring fee of up to 0.1% of the total revenues established by the annual financial statements of state-owned enterprises approved for the previous year, established annually by order of the President of the Agency .

Through AMEPIP attributions:

• participation in procedures for selection of administrative or supervisory boards of state-owned enterprises;
• monitoring and evaluation of performance indicators achieved by state-owned enterprises;
• consultations on corporate management; analyzes and reports on various state-owned enterprises or economic spheres in which state-owned enterprises operate; periodicals in which the portfolio of state-owned enterprises of the state is presented;
• professional training courses intended for employees of state enterprises or state guardianship bodies.

The founding law states that AMEPIP can impose sanctions on state enterprises, state guardianship bodies and individuals guilty of dishonestly failing to meet performance indicators.