Crinuţa Dumitrean decides who gets the EUR640m of Fondul Proprietatea

17 mai 2011 Autor: Andrei Chirileasa

The chairperson of the Property Restitution Authority (ANRP), Crinuţa Dumitrean, decides who will receive the 36% of the shares of Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO) that the Finance Ministry still holds.

Over the last few days, the whole of Romania has been debating PD-L (Democratic Liberal Party) elections and the economic crisis, but something big is now taking place behind the scenes, with no one talking about the key characters. At stake is who comes first and who is moved to the back of the queue when it comes to receiving Fund shares in compensation for nationalization of properties that occurred in communist times.

The key character is Ms. Crinuţa Dumitrean, chairperson of the National Property Restitution Authority. She now decides, together with the three vice-presidents of the institution, who and when will receive shares in the Fund from the increasingly small stake held by the state. The management of the authority is politically appointed, with most members being close to major leaders of PD-L, the main ruling party.

Their role became much more important last week, when the Government adopted a decision that took everyone by surprise, modifying the manner in which shares are granted, and leaving it for the restitution authority to decide who will be the priority recipients of FP shares. The Government decision says when the arguments are strong (medical situations, social cases, proved with documents) the restitution authority will be able to give priority to certain recipients when issuing conversion certificates (decisions based on which holders of compensation certificates receive shares from the FP).

The Finance Ministry is now left with just over 36% of the Fund's shares, currently valued at around EUR640 million. However, the real value of these shares is over twice as high (around EUR1.46 billion), if one considers the value of the fund's assets, put at over EUR4 billion at the end of April.

Crinuţa Dumitrean was appointed to the helm of the authority by Premier Emil Boc in early 2009, a position affording her the rank of secretary of state. She came from Bistriţa, being endorsed by Ioan Oltean, who was elected on Sunday as secretary general of PD-L, thus becoming the second-highest ranking person in the party.