CEOs, board chairs on 3-day retreat
A three-day annual retreat for chief executive officers (CEOs) of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is underway at Nkwatia in the Kwahu East District of the Eastern Region.
The retreat, which was organised by the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), is also being attended by Chairpersons of Board of Directors and Deputy CEOs of state corporations.
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It is to deliberate and solicit ideas that will help realise the dream of the SOEs to discover the major forces to influence Ghana's economy next year with respect to the Ghana beyond aid agenda.
Some of the topics to be treated are transforming specified entities towards the delivery of quality service and commercial performance, implementing energy efficiency in specified entities and Ghana's Cyber Security Act, 2020, its implications and the role of state entities.
Speaking on the theme: ‘The Strategic Role of Heads of Institutions in Transforming Specified Entities Towards the Achievement of Ghana Beyond Aid’, the Chief of Staff at the Office of the Presidency, Mrs Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, urged heads of state institutions and corporations to eschew bad leadership traits.
That, she said, would position the SOEs to strengthen the economy in a manner that would help achieve the Ghana beyond aid agenda.
Notwithstanding that position, the Chief of Staff indicated that chairmen of boards of directors of the SOEs, the CEOs and their deputies must work together and maintain cordial relationship among themselves to financially strengthen their respective organisations.
Containing COVID-19
The Director-General of SIGA, Mr Stephen Asamoah Boateng, lauded state institutions for managing their entities in such a way that minimised the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy.
According to him, due to the under performance of SOEs, the World Bank, with the help of the government, conducted a review of the corporate governance framework of the various SOEs from 2013 to 2015.
The goal, he said, was to identify constraints created by existing governance and oversight systems on SOEs performance, among others.
Corporate governance
That, Mr Asamoah Boateng stated, brought to light poor governance practices at the SOEs level, lack of a clearly define ownership framework, multiple government organisations, fragmented and uncoordinated oversight of the SOEs.
From those findings, the Director-General of SIGA indicated that it was recommended that the government should streamline and centralised oversight and management of SOEs to improve their governance and performance.
Similarly, Mr Asamoah Boateng said, the corporate governance reviews carried out on selected financial and economic regulators also recommended that the government should develop and implement a formal accountability framework and strengthen the governance in state entities, particularly in the areas of transparency and accountability.
Based on the recommendations of the Corporate Governance Assessments, he said the government, in its 2017 Budget and Economic Policy Statement, was committed to establishing a single entity to oversee the various SOEs.