Irineu Darău: The salaries of state-owned company administrators were set “out of thin air.” The Ministry of Economy is introducing uniform criteria

Interim Economy Minister Irineu Dară announced on Tuesday the approval of a uniform system for determining the remuneration of executives at the 52 state-owned companies in the ministry’s portfolio. The new methodology is intended to replace the setting of allowances “out of thin air” with clear and comparable rules.

The calculation will start from the average gross wage in the sector in which each company operates and will take five criteria into account: turnover and number of employees, strategic importance and the difficulty of the mandate, the volume of investments relative to turnover, stock market listing, and profitability.

According to the minister, remuneration will reflect responsibility and operational performance. Strategic companies with many employees and significant investments will be assessed differently from small companies with less complex operations.

For loss-making companies, the initial level will be a prudent one. Remuneration could be reassessed if executives reduce the loss by at least 20%, return the company to profitability, or increase recurring net profit by at least 20%. Reassessment will not be automatic, and the results will have to be demonstrated.

Any deviation from the established formula will have to be justified in writing through a scoring sheet and an explanatory memorandum. The methodology will now be implemented and the results measured.