One of the stakes of the PSD-PNL fight for the head of the Government General Secretariat: control over the super-agency that manages state-owned companies

One of the most important tasks of the new Secretary General of the Government is to propose to the Prime Minister candidates for the head of AMEPIP, a super-agency with absolute control over all state-owned companies. This is one of the implicit stakes of the dispute between PSD and PNL that arose after Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu refused to appoint liberal Mircea Abrudean as secretary general of the government and asked Nicolae Ciucă for another proposal.

PNL leaders met on Monday at 8.00 am to discuss the situation created by Prime Minister Ciolacu’s refusal to work with Mircea Abrudean.

The AMEPIP agency, which Economedia has been writing about exclusively since December 2022, will be under the control of the prime minister and the secretary general of the government. At the moment, the post of secretary general of the government belongs to the PNL.

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The law establishing AMEPIP clearly states that „the president and vice-presidents shall be appointed by decision of the prime minister, on the proposal of the secretary general of the government”.

The draft law establishing the Agency for Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Enterprise Performance (AMEPIP) was adopted by Parliament in May, but has not yet entered into force because it has been challenged by USR at the Constitutional Court.

The draft law was adopted by the Ciucă government in December 2022 and sent to Parliament. At the time, neither Prime Minister Ciucă nor other PNL leaders had any objections. Liberals later rebelled against the bill, but it passed Parliament.

In short, the bill sets up a super-agency (AMEPIP) that will place under the control of the prime minister and the secretary-general absolutely all state-owned companies and autonomous regions: companies controlled by ministries, municipalities, county councils and intra-community development agencies (ADIs).

AMEPIP’s control over these companies will be absolute, as several articles in the draft show. For example, one article in the draft shows how easily the directors of a state-owned company can be dismissed, even if they are appointed for four-year terms, simply for failing to meet key performance indicators, which are set by the government’s own AMEPIP board:

„If the key performance indicators are not restored to the approved minimum level, AMEPIP shall submit to the public supervisory authority the measure of revoking the appointed administrators and resuming the selection procedure, informing the Government accordingly”

PNL MPs were outraged when the draft reached the Chamber of Deputies and tasked Cristina Trăilă, a public procurement specialist, to manage a working group.

One of the PNL’s fears is that the PSD will be able to control not only companies run by ministries, but also the firms of county councils and intra-community development agencies, agencies made up of dozens of town halls that now have a political balance and can run major utility projects.

On the other hand, PSD supporters, led by Marian Neacșu, claim that the controversial provisions were demanded by the OECD and the NRRP, which is why the government led by liberal Nicolae Ciucă accepted them.

Translated