The sluggish reforms in Romania's state-owned and run companies have raised tensions with one of the country's main international financiers, the International Monetary Fund.
Following a meeting with a visiting IMF delegation, Blocul National Sindical trade union Chairman Dumitru Costin candidly told reporters, "The representatives of trade unions and of the IMF have found that there is a tendency to postpone the modernization of the state-owned companies."
Costin added, "This is not the right moment for privatization. The priority should be given to the depoliticization of the management of those companies, but the government postpones the privatization of state companies' management, because the electoral campaign is getting near, and the 'hen that lays the golden eggs' needs to be politically controlled," Romania's Jurnalul National newspaper reported.
The International Monetary Fund representatives stated that their organization is not satisfied with the government's sluggishness in its proposed plan to appoint private managers to state-owned companies and stressed the need for quicker and more radical action on the issue.
As a trade union representative, Costin has continued to dig in his heels over the IMF demands.
Citing the case of the Romanian Post newspaper Costin said, "We cannot talk about modernization, we can only talk about personnel layoffs. Some 3,000 people will take to the streets in two weeks to protest against this fake type of reorganization."
By. Charles Kennedy, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com
Charles is a writer for Oilprice.com More