"State should remain majority owner of EPS"

"State should remain majority owner of EPS"

The EPS needs to be recapitalized so that it does not operate at a loss, said Kovačević, who was appointed as president of the EPS Supervisory Board after the government relieved of duties all members of that board.

Kovačević, who is dean of the Belgrade-based School of Electrical Engineering and previously served as Belgrade University rector, said that a company such as the EPS, which produces and sells power, must not operate at a loss,

He specified that the EPS should be reorganized in technological and organizational terms in order to rationalize its business operations, implement modern technologies, make it operate in line with environmental standards, and introduce a more efficient IT system within the company.

Asked whether there will be lay-offs as part of the announced rationalization of the EPS business operations, Kovačević said that first the situation should be scanned concerning the competence of the workforce and the number of employees, and then one will be able to tell whether there are more employees than the EPS really needs.

There is a small number of quality employees, engineers and production workers, but it is very likely that the administration department of the company is bloated, he said.

All changes will be made in consultations with the EPS Board of Directors and the Serbian government, Kovačević said.

Social security cannot be maintained with a low price of electricity, which has been the case for decades, as that is causing a major loss to the EPS, he noted.