The Parliamentary commissions validated yesterday the unknown Romeo Comaniciu, PDL’s candidate for the leadership of the Insurance Supervisory Commission (CSA).
The members of the Lower Chamber’s and the Senate’s Budget-Finances Commissions started yesterday the joint hearings for the leadership of the Insurance Supervisory Commission (CSA), a commission that supervises a EUR 2 bln market.
Yesterday the Commissions validated Romeo Ionut Comaniciu, director of Astra’s Brasov branch, for the leadership of CSA. Comaniciu was PDL’s candidate and was validated with 21 votes in favour, 12 against and an abstention, according to wall-street.ro. Cristian Constantinescu, PDL’s former candidate for the leadership of CSA, was rejected by the Commissions on Monday with 25 votes against and 14 in favour. Also yesterday, the Commissions voted for the CSA’s two Vice Presidents: Constantin Buzoianu (PDL candidate) and Tudor Balta (PSD candidate), money.ro informs.
Comaniciu’s hearing was marred by controversies surrounding his age (35) but mostly his professional experience. At first he stated he obtained his BA at the Economic Sciences Academy (ASE), but the MPs noticed he graduated the Spiru Haret University instead.
PSD asked for a secret vote but its request was turned down. “He had brilliant results in Brasov,” Radu Mustatea, Astra general manager stated according to ‘Ziarul Financiar.’ Cristian Constantinescu had a different view, claiming that Comaniciu’s validation would be an extremely bad signal for foreign investors, the latter set to figure out that the authorities are not interested in a domain that is very important for an economy. Romeo Comaniciu also owns the Anro Consulting Company, which is Astra Insurance’s insurance agent, and 25 per cent of Amouliani SRL, the latter offering brokerage services in the insurances sector. The fact that Amouliani offers those services without having CSA’s authorization is a felony, CSA officials state.
Astra Insurnaces is the largest insurance company in the country, being owned by businessman Dan Adamescu. If he is validated in Parliament too, Comaniciu will replace Angela Toncescu at the head of CSA.
Toncescu to “stay put” until someone shows up
In an interview for HotNews, Constantinescu stated that his rejection was a great surprise because those that did not vote for him were the representatives of the party that proposed him. Constantinescu owns more than 2.73 per cent of the Allianz-Tiriac shares and although that fact would not have made him incompatible with the office, he stated he deems it natural to give up these shares if he is elected President of CSA. He had already started negotiations with Ion Tiriac in this sense. “Now that it didn’t happen I’ll revoke everything because I don’t want to sell my shares,” he underlined.
On the other hand, in case the new candidate is not eventually validated, Constantinescu states that Toncescu will remain in office until someone is. “It’s normal for someone to remain in office until a successor is named, it’s just I don’t think it’s normal to postpone this decision for 1-2 years, irrespective of who the successor is. As mentioned in the ruling coalition protocol and as agreed even with Opposition parties, the office of CSA President belongs to PDL. PDL has to nominate a candidate,” Constantinescu explained.
Vice-President, Court of Accounts advisors, validated
The Senate’s and Lower Chamber’s Budget-Finances Commissions validated yesterday a Vice-President and five Court of Accounts advisors, Mediafax reports. Ion Hurjui, Carmen Stanescu, Lucian Negrea and Pelea Aurora Marta (PDL candidates), Petre Lakatos (UDMR candidate) and Anton Ion (UNPR candidate for Vice-President) were heard. The candidates were unanimously validated and will next have to be validated by the Parliament’s plenum.
In other developments, PSD and PNL MPs walked out yesterday from the Budget-Finances Commissions, PNL MP Eugen Nicolaescu arguing that the ruling coalition failed to respect the algorithm that concerns appointments within the Court of Accounts.
