Djedovic: We Are Looking for the Right People for EPS Outside the Borders of Serbia Too

The minister of mining and energy of Serbia, Dubravka Djedovic, has said that they are looking for the right people for Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) outside the borders of Serbia too, and that she expects the changes to show results in 12 months.

– If there are right people in right places in EPS, who we are also looking for in the international labor market, I expect the first effects of the changes to be visible in 12 months – Djedovic said in an interview for Blic.

She added that the electricity price increase in November depended on how successful the company would turn out to be.

She said that the change of the legal form of EPS had nothing to do with privatization or surplus employees and that there would be no privatization and that the essence of the changes was to show that the state could be the owner of EPS as a profitable company.

Regarding the criticism that the GM would be represented by only one member, a representative of the state, Djedovic said that EPS had had a GM with only one member in its history.

– The composition of the GM reflects the ownership structure, and in EPS, the state is the 100% owner. The GM appoints the Supervisory Board and transfers the majority of the responsibility to it, and the Supervisory Board sets the strategy and the business goals and is responsible for their realization – Djedovic said.

She said that “the Government will determine who leads the GM and it makes sense for it to be the competent minister, as is the case in some other countries.”

– The interests of the state, and not political interests, are important when it comes to this decision. If the aim had been to retain the political influence, a GM with plenty of members would have been formed. The majority of the strategic decisions adopted by the GM requires approval from the Founder, that is, the Government – Djedovic said.

She added that the Norwegian experts were working on reforming Srbijagas in line with the action plan adopted by the Government.

– That is also an obligation toward the EU and international partners. Together with the Norwegian consultants, we will look into how to make Srbijagas more efficient. EDS and Srbijagas are public companies which need to be restructured in order to become more profitable. The final solutions will also depend on the Law on the Management of Companies Owned by the State, which will soon be adopted – said Djedovic.

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

JP Srbijagas Novi Sad

Elektroprivreda Srbije ad Beograd

Ministry of Mining and Energy

Srbijagas

Elektroprivreda Srbije

EPS

Dubravka Đedović

electricity price increase