Time to offload stake in SOEs to cut down cost
The government has been urged, as a matter of urgency, to offload its stake in all state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as part of measures to reduce public sector wage bill and government expenditure as a whole.
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According to the Chief Executive Officer of Gamank Group, Dr Sam Ankrah, this is the most opportune time to let go these state institutions to raise funds for development projects, while reducing the public sector wage bill which continues to burden the economy.
Dr Ankrah, who made the call in an interview with the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in Accra on May 14, said, “in disposing of its stake, the government should not go to foreign companies alone. There are local companies which are capable of buying them to run them efficiently and profitably”.
“If the government has to sell, it can look within because there are people ready to buy and turn those companies around to employ more people, rein in profits and pay appropriate taxes to the state”, he said.
SOEs in Ghana
Many SOEs in the country have become an albatross around the neck of government because they have consistently failed to rake in the needed revenue to enable them contribute their quota to the national kitty.
Most of them have to fall on the government for subvention; a phenomenon which is fast depleting the coffers of the state and ballooning the public-sector wage bill unnecessarily.
Some of these companies can be found in the petroleum sector, financial services and media, among others.
For instance, Dr Ankrah mentioned institutions such as the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) and said these companies should not be run by the government”.
“They should be managed by private companies and that will bring greater efficiency in management, while generating revenue for the state through taxes”, he said.