The government does not know what it wants from state-owned companies, it does not know them, and we do not know what is wanted from us, claims the general director of the Romanian National Post Company (CNPR), Valentin Stefan.
"In the last year - especially - there has been a very hot topic on the public agenda, namely the role of state-owned companies. What do we do with these companies whose revenues are equivalent to 5% of the Gross Domestic Product? We are talking about over a quarter of a million employees. There is a role, a fantastic power that these companies play and, obviously, the Romanian Post is one of them. (...) I notice that the Romanian state is trying to give coherence to these companies. But since we, Romanians, have been very good at it in our century and a half of history - namely, importing forms without substance, as Titu Maiorescu used to say - we are observing this now: AMEPIP is being established, we have all these measures that the Government is taking and the legislation for joining the OECD, we have a deputy prime minister who has this role of creating coherence for state-owned companies. "Of course, for now there is no coherence, the Government does not know what it wants from state-owned companies, it does not know its companies and it had no way of knowing this. The existing state-owned companies do not have a capitalist tradition. They broke away from a centralized system, in which companies functioned like institutions - and you can see this in the DNA of each company that the Romanian state owns, from the names of the structures we have," said Stefan, in a press conference.
In this regard, the head of the CNPR noted that there is no change in mentality among state-owned companies in Romania, and "Marxist terms" are used in official communications, when justification of surplus value is requested. In addition, says Valentin Stefan, those in state-owned companies do not know what is expected of them.
"There is no change in mentality, in organizational culture among state-owned companies in Romania, and there never was, and I tell you honestly: The government doesn't even know how to do this. We see this almost every day in our interaction with different ministries or different entities. We are amused when we see Marxist terms used in official communications, when we are asked to justify surplus value. Surplus value may not mean much to us, as a relatively young generation, but if someone had used the word surplus value before the communists came to Romania, we would have realized that that person came directly from Leninist Russia. All these small signs make our lives, those of us in state-owned companies, much harder, because we don't know what is expected of us. If we want to make a profit, then we shouldn't be limited to certain incomes. We can't bring more than 7%, we cannot have a profitability higher than 7% on the part of the Convention with the Ministry of Labor. It's capped. How can we have 20% if the Government tells us 7% from the start? How can we have a higher profit at the Romanian Post if, without any negotiation, without any market consultation, the revenues are established by law, at 1.1% of the amounts that enter our company? It's no use being a company that operates in a free market if the Government limits these things," he said.
In his opinion, under the conditions in which the company he runs is required to solve social problems, such as the distribution of pensions and other social benefits, there should no longer be "the claim of profitability."
"And I leave you with one last thought, namely: a normal country creates such great agility among state-owned companies that they carry out their activity not only in the national territory, but also outside the country. And tell me, how many state-owned companies have gone abroad and why do state-owned companies, especially the large ones, such as the Romanian Post, not go abroad, while others have a very aggressive policy of acquiring other companies? I don't think there is one in our country. If I were to come up with a proposal to buy a company, I assure you that the first thought that would be on everyone's lips would be what interest is there in the Romanian Post? Why does the director want to buy that company? Whose is it? Is it a relative's company, is it a friend's company... All these psychoses that we have as a society - and traumas - in which we look at each other others and dividing ourselves into two categories - either thieves or fools - does not take us where we should be and where the potential of this country exists," added Valentin Stefan
Comentează