The government will investigate the top 100 salary packages in the public sector and will temporarily suspend the granting of bonuses and other additional payments for salaries that exceed three times the economic average. The measures were announced by Prime Minister Vasile Tofan following an analysis of the so-called “outrageous salaries”, which identified over 400 employees with net incomes of over 50 thousand lei per month, reports IPN.

The analysis targeted nearly 40 thousand employees from public institutions, state enterprises, public capital companies and independent authorities. 439 individuals were identified with net salaries over 50 thousand lei per month, with the majority of cases being in independent regulatory authorities.

According to the data presented by the prime minister, over 85% of the employees analyzed have net incomes below 20 thousand lei per month, and 55.6% earn less than 10 thousand lei. Vasile Tofan pointed out that a high salary does not automatically represent an abuse, indicating areas such as IT, cybersecurity or aviation, where the state competes with the private sector for specialists. However, cases where the remuneration is not justified will be checked.

The executive intends to temporarily suspend the distribution of a portion of state-owned companies’ profits to employees, after finding that this mechanism has allowed, in some cases, unjustified increases in income.

The government also proposes the creation of a public online registry with information about salaries in the public sector, as well as the periodic presentation of activity results and remuneration policies by the leaders of state institutions and enterprises.