INTERVIU. Oana Gheorghiu despre ce a găsit în companiile de stat. „Într-o companie de energie, 30 de oameni erau angajați ca să se ocupe cu închirieri de clădiri” – HotNews.ro

It sounds like something out of a satirical sketch: an energy company that has completely forgotten how to produce energy, instead employing over 30 people whose sole professional purpose is to manage building rentals. This isn’t a fictional scenario from a corporate training manual on “what not to do”; it is the current reality in Romania, as recently detailed by interim Vice Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu. In a candid interview with HotNews, Gheorghiu pulled back the curtain on the systemic rot within state-owned enterprises, specifically citing Electrocentrale Grup and Petrotrans—the latter of which has reportedly spent 19 years in insolvency, essentially existing as a vacuum that consumes capital to pay the highly liquidators and accountants tasked with closing it down.

While this particular brand of bureaucratic absurdity is unfolding in Eastern Europe, those of us here in Chicago know that the scent of institutional inertia is universal. Whether it’s a state-run energy firm in Bucharest or the labyrinthine procurement processes within the City of Chicago, the underlying pathology is the same: the “Zombie Company” phenomenon. Here’s where an entity continues to draw breath—and budget—long after its original mission has expired, sustained only by a layer of management that has a vested interest in the status quo.

The Anatomy of Institutional Inertia

The case of Electrocentrale Grup is a masterclass in mission drift. When 80% of a company’s revenue comes from real estate rentals rather than energy production, it is no longer an energy company; it is a poorly managed REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) masquerading as a public utility. The fact that the Romanian Ministry of Energy ignored this for decades speaks to a broader failure of oversight that resonates deeply with the American experience of public-sector mismanagement. In a city like Chicago, where the intersection of politics and public utilities is notoriously complex, we see similar risks when oversight bodies become too cozy with the entities they are meant to regulate.

Consider the role of the Better Government Association (BGA) here in Illinois. They spend countless hours digging through the same kind of data Gheorghiu is now highlighting—trying to find where public funds are being leaked into “ghost” functions or redundant administrative layers. When a company like Petrotrans spends nearly two decades in insolvency just to pay the fees of the people managing the insolvency, it creates a parasitic loop. In the US, we see this in the form of “legacy costs” and pension obligations that can cripple municipal budgets, often protected by layers of bureaucracy that make meaningful restructuring nearly impossible.

The Danger of the “Sunk Cost” Fallacy in Public Policy

One of the most jarring parts of Gheorghiu’s revelation is the resistance to change. Public companies often resist providing information to the government because transparency is the enemy of inefficiency. In the local context, when we look at the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) or other state-level agencies, the challenge is often shifting from a culture of “compliance” (doing things by the book) to a culture of “performance” (actually achieving the goal). If the “book” says you need 30 people to manage a few leases, a compliant manager will hire 30 people, even if a single software subscription could do the job in ten minutes.

This creates a secondary economic effect. When public resources are tied up in zombie enterprises, they aren’t being invested in actual infrastructure—like the modernization of the CTA or the revitalization of the South Side’s industrial corridors. Every dollar spent on a redundant accountant for a defunct state firm is a dollar stolen from a functioning bridge or a new school. To understand how to break these cycles, one must look at modern frameworks for municipal transparency, which emphasize real-time auditing over retrospective reporting.

Navigating the Fallout: A Local Resource Guide

The revelation of such systemic waste often triggers a wave of “house cleaning” within organizations. If you are a business owner, a public official, or a stakeholder in Chicago who suspects that your own organization—or a partner you’re contracting with—is suffering from this kind of “zombie” bloat, you cannot rely on standard management. You need specialists who are trained to find the “invisible” waste.

Given my background in geo-journalism and corporate auditing, I’ve seen that the only way to kill a zombie company is through aggressive, external forensic analysis. If this trend of institutional inefficiency is impacting your operations in the Chicago area, here are the three types of local professionals you need to bring to the table:

Forensic Accountants (CFE Certified)

You aren’t looking for a standard CPA who handles taxes. You need a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) who specializes in “leakage.” Look for professionals who have experience with government contracts and can perform a “functional audit”—which doesn’t just ask if the money was spent legally, but whether the spending achieved any actual utility. If you see 30 people doing the work of one, a forensic accountant is the one who documents the redundancy for the board.

Municipal Law & Procurement Specialists

In Chicago, the law is the shield that inefficiency uses to survive. You need a legal expert who understands the specific nuances of the City of Chicago’s procurement ordinances and Illinois state law. The right specialist won’t just tell you that a contract is “legal”; they will find the legal mechanism to terminate a non-performing contract without triggering a decade of litigation.

Corporate Turnaround & Restructuring Consultants

When a company has been in “insolvency limbo” like Petrotrans, you need a turnaround specialist. Look for consultants with a proven track record in Chapter 11 reorganizations or public-sector “right-sizing.” The key criterion here is a history of *actual closures* or *actual pivots*. Avoid consultants who only offer “strategic planning”; you want the ones who specialize in the surgical removal of redundant departments.

The lesson from the Romanian energy sector is a warning: without aggressive oversight, bureaucracy doesn’t just slow down—it becomes the product itself. In a city as dynamic as Chicago, You can’t afford to let our public or private institutions become museums of inefficiency.

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