Integrity

Luxury managers of state

Colaj: CIJM
Author: Mariana Rață
01/02/2017 43926

Directors of state-owned enterprises raise monthly salaries of tens of thousands of dollars despite the fact that most of them register losses year by year. Most of directors of  these companies get large sums of money and  their salaries  are sometimes higher than the annual profits of the companies which they manage. In some cases, even if the enterprises which they manage are on the brink of bankruptcy, managers double their salaries with benefits for good management or performance. Though some enterprises get considerable incomes, profits from the business are very low and the money is spent on all sorts of needs of the companies.

Salary of the director of  Metalferos, personal data

Alexei Tambrovschi, Serghei Nagorneac and Dan Mitriuc are currently the highest paid managers of state-owned companies in Moldova out of about 50 state enterprises monitored by the Center for Investigative Journalism together with Transparency International Moldova.

Alexei Tambrovschi  is director of  Joint Stock Company Metalferos, specialized in  metal waste collection and recycling equipment. He has held this post since July 2014. According to the 2015 statement on property, he obtained an income from work worth 850,000 lei, 70 916 lei per month

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Before Metalferos, he managed the Enterprise Association of  Meat Processing Industry. In his statement, the manager claims that he owns 99%  of shares in Olbris-Impex company,  that has the same type of activity as Metalferos. In recent years, several companies specialized in the collection, preservation, processing, marketing and export of waste and scrap metal  were registered in the office of Olbris-Impex on str. Bernardazzi.4.  These companies are managed by relatives and business partners of Tambrovschi.

Manager of Metalferos  did not want to discuss with us about these companies as he said that he did not accept interviews. Under financial reports, in 2015, Metalferos  had incomes worth one billion lei and the profit amounted at only 41,3 million  lei, which is about 4,1% of income. The rest of the money went for maintenance of the company and procurement of raw material. In 2015, Metalferos’s profit fell by one third compared to 2014 and by about nine times against 2011. Metalferos was targeted in recent years in several criminal cases but the actions of prosecutors did not have continuity.

 

Millionaire manager of an unknown enterprise

Serghei Nagorneac has been director of the State Enterprise Ingeocad  since 2002.  In 2015, the manager raised a monthly salary worth 53.255 lei, by 60% higher than in 2014 when he received  33.479  lei per month.

According to  web site,  Ingeocad is a "leader in the Republic of Moldova  in surveying, geological and mapping activity". In 2015, the company recorded a profit of only 2,000 lei (!),in terms of revenues is over 13.6 million lei and pay rise of the director by about 20,000 lei per month.

Nagorneac obtained in  2015 incomes from salary worth over 639.000 lei and  other 660,000 lei  from deposits  in financial institutions. Nagorneac has six bank deposits, totaling over 4.5 million lei. Nagorneac has been working for this company since 1983, after graduation.

Contacted by phone, Nagorneac claims to have collected money from salary. "Bank deposits? Well, you've seen that I do not own other properties. I do not have cars, houses, only one apartment.  I get a salary worth 500,000 lei a year, so I save money", he told us.

 

From General Media Grup to Moldtelecom

Dan Mitriuc, director of SA Moldtelecom is the third highest paid manager of a state-owned  company. He was appointed for this post in April 2016, based on a transparent competition organized by the Administration Council of the company. Mitriuc seems to  get a salary of 50,000 lei.

In his statement on property filed at  NIC, Mitriuc, son in law  of Tamara Andrusca, former  financial director at Prime Management, the company that manages the media holding  of Vlad Plahotniuc said that he activated in 2015 at General Media Group, owned by Vlad Plahotniuc , and he received a total income of 47,000 lei and from Moldova’s  Railways - 45,000 lei. Salary from Moldtelecom seems to be incomparably higher.

Earlier, the press wrote about several phantom companies conducting businesses with the main fixed telephony operator in Moldova. According to Ziarul National, since 2012 Moldtelecom outsourced call termination services to a Swiss company Switchover AG. Sergiu Talpa,  former colleague of lyceum and university with the current Speaker  Andrian Candu, has been member of the Administrative Council of this company last year. In 2015, the foreign company would have gained over 324 million lei from this service ceded by Moldtelecom.

Benefits for losses at Moldatsa

Vadim Gugea, acting manager of the company Moldatsa is the fourth in the top of highly paid state managers. He raised in 2015 an average monthly salary worth 46.155  lei.  But Gugea has a modest salary compared to his predecessors from Moldatsa. Former director of the company, Veaceslav Frunze, who was dismissed in September 2015  raised an average monthly salary worth 75.950  lei (the highest of all granted to managers of state owned enterprises– n.r.). For example, in January 2015, Veaceslav Frunze received a salary worth 135.809 lei. Out of this sum, the salary was 19.552  lei, monthly pay rise under the agreement of manager  - 16.619 lei,  and other 99.637  lei  were paid as benefits  for performance indicators. According to financial report, in 2014, Moldatsa registered losses worth 38 million lei. In these circumstances, it is not clear for   what performances Frunze received benefits in early 2015.

Contacted by phone, Veaceslav Frunze said that he did not remember what happened in 2015  but the “topic is exhausted”.

Luxury manager in agriculture

Mecagro Institute for Agricultural Equipment is less known for public opinion. Valerian Cerempei is the director of enterprise of agricultural equipment production and marketing.  In 2015, he received a monthly salary of 42 300 lei. Of this amount, only 28,000 lei  is the salary and the remaining amount covers indemnities and benefits of inventor. In 2014, the salary of Cerempei was higher - 51,000 lei. Instead, the state enterprise profit was modest in recent years. In 2015, the company earned just 1.2 million lei.

Businesses of the manager from Moldexpo

Arcadie Andronic, director of the International Exhibiting Center Moldexpo raises a monthly salary of over 41.000 lei. According to data of the State Registration Chamber, Arcadie Andronic is currently manager of the companies Poliproject Grup, Visagency, Oceacov and Andron Tiunicov & Coev Fotbal Management Consulting. Also, he is a partner in all these companies. One of Andronic’s companies, Poliproject Exhibitions, specialized in activities of exhibitions, registered debts worth over 1,2 million lei to Moldexpo. Andronic assures that most of these debts were paid.

Under an investigation carried out by the Center for Investigative Journalism, Arcadie Andronic seems to be a close man to Serghei Iaralov’s family, trusted aide of Vlad Plahotniuc. Andronic was appointed for this post in February 2011, following a contest organized by the Ministry of Economy, managed by Valeriu Lazar. A year later, he signed five lease contracts by which he leased 1.17 hectares of land from the territory of the exhibition center to Finpar company Invest SRL, owned by Plahotniuc, for a period of 25 years. The lease contract was challenged in court and is pending at  Buiucani District Court.

How state managers double their salaries?

Among the top ten highest paid state managers is Teodor  Ciclicci, director of the National Centre for Radio Frequencies (NCRF). According to official data, in 2015 he received a monthly salary of 40 766 lei. The salary of director of the company was twice smaller (20,300 lei), and doubled it at the expense of benefits and  pay rise worth about 20,400 lei per month.

The remuneration of the director of Radio telecommunications Mihai Iacob is calculated under the same principle. Salary for his post in 2015 was 17.160 lei. Thanks to bonuses and monthly pay rise, he received an average salary of  34,000 lei per month.

Salary higher than company’s profits

Victor Cojocaru has managed Franzeluta as of 2015 and he raised an average salary of  38.000  lei per month. More than half of this sum are the bonuses and benefits and the salary totaling about 18.000 lei.

Under the statement on property, Anatolie Izbanda, director of the Institute of Scientific Researched in Constructions Incercom in 2008, raised an average salary worth 37.300 lei in 2015. This year, the profit of the enterprise was about 250.000  lei. Izbanda received an annual salary by almost 2 times higher than the profit of the company which he manages.

The same situation is registered at State Enterprise Moldova’s Railway (CFM). Current director, Iurie Topala received in 2015, 19.800 lei per month, though CFM registered losses worth over 105 million lei.  

Head of enterprise Moldelectrica that in 2015 registered losses worth 496 million lei, raised a salary worth 28.000 lei. Ghennadi Dimov has been managing this enterprise since 2008.

„Legislation must be revised”

Recently, Transparency International Moldova has published a report on monitoring the transparency of state enterprises and joint stock companies with state capital.

"Despite considerable losses recorded by a range of enterprises, managers and members of the administration councils continue to receive large sums of money. Transparency International Moldova believes that the legislation regulating the activity of state enterprises must be revised, especially in the context of increasing the quality and efficiency of enterprises’ management", says Lilia Carasciuc, executive director of Transparency International Moldova.

 

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