IMF asks for ending the practice of appointing acting directors

The International Monetary Fund has given a recommendation to the Serbian government to end the custom of appointing acting directors in state-owned enterprises. Otherwise, they can't expect to completely reform these companies, which also includes professional management, Blic daily quoted the source from the government.

What that means is that IMF asked that the government end all contest for professional managements by the end of the year, thus ending the age of acting directors too.

The source for Blic claims that the IMF representatives advised that the Law on Public Enterprises must be adhered to properly. The Law proposes that acting directors in state-owned enterprises can remain in the position up to a year, maximum.

– The improvement of governance in public enterprises is extremely important to IMF, which is impossible with those in a temporary office because they can be politically influenced. They find it unacceptable that certain persons remain in “acting” position for several years which is why they advised the government to end this practice as soon as possible, the source said.

More so, the source added, they had the report from October 2019 which recorded that directors of 20 out of 37 enterprises in total had “acting” status.

According to their opinion, this situation is an impediment to reforms in public service sector which condition the continuation of the financial consolidation, the source said.

Međunarodni monetarni fond-MMF Beograd

HIP-Petrohemija a.d. Pančevo

International Monetary Fund

Petrohemija

IMF

acting director

acting position

Law on Public Enterprises