Corporate governance reform remains one of the government’s priorities, and the OECD Guidelines represent the main standard for developing effective institutional and regulatory frameworks for the ownership and governance of state-owned enterprises, said Deputy Prime Minister Marian Neacsu as he attended on Tuesday, at the Victoria Palace, the launch of the Romanian version of the OECD Guidelines on the Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises, an event jointly organized by the government’s Secretariat General and the OECD.
„Joining the OECD represents an extremely important undertaking, a genuine country project that we have set out to complete and we hope – as progress so far is encouraging – that this will happen somewhere in the middle of next year. Today we are launching the Romanian version of the OECD guide on corporate governance of state-owned enterprises, one of the main instruments that will lead the corporate governance system in Romania. (…) The document offers guidelines and recommendations regarding the state’s exercising its role as owner of public enterprises, the role of the state as a shareholder, ensuring fair and loyal competition conditions, standards regarding disclosure, transparency and accountability, the composition and responsibilities of the Board of Directors of public enterprises, stimulating decision-making at public enterprises, encouraging them to manage risks in order to ensure sustainability and resilience. The OECD Guidelines represent the main standard for developing effective institutional and regulatory frameworks for the ownership and governance of state-owned enterprises. All of this highlights the fact that the state, as the owner of public enterprises, must exercise its ownership right in order to maximize the value of the enterprise for society,” declared Marian Neacsu.
The Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that the formal opinion granted to Romania by the OECD Governance Committee „does not mean the end of the road” and that the Committee has also made a series of recommendations, such as ensuring the effective operationalization of the Agency for Monitoring and Assessing Public Enterprises’ Performance; continuing to strengthen the autonomy and independence of the Boards of Directors by fully applying the provisions of Law No. 187 of 2023 in order to achieve transparent selection processes for the Boards of Directors; continuing to improve transparency and reporting practices, by ensuring a more efficient implementation of financial and non-financial disclosure requirements for state-owned enterprises and resuming the timely publication of the aggregate annual report on state-owned enterprises.
He also highlighted another recommendation, regarding „continuing to strengthen the in-company control system in state-owned enterprises, by ensuring that internal control measures for risk management, combating corruption and integrity are properly implemented.”
The government’s Deputy Secretary General Adrian Tutuianu, the Government’s Secretariat General official responsible for corporate governance within the OECD accession process, called on those responsible for the transformation, according to the legislation in force, of the public corporations into joint stock companies.
„I would like to tell those of you who represent public corporations or act as coordinators thereof, that we only have one year left, and the three years provided for by law for the transformation of public corporations into joint-stock companies and limited liability companies are coming to an end, and so far we have not taken the necessary steps to meet this requirement. (…) Therefore, I ask the public stewardship authorities and the public corporations – there are 10 thereof at national level and 78 in the portfolio of local public authorities – to proceed with the implementation of the legal provisions I mentioned,” declared Tutuianu.
