A Senior Visiting Fellow from the Manchester Business School, Prof. Pikay Richardson, has advised board members of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to avoid taking allowances for board meetings that they do not attend, since that practice is unethical.
“Some board members do not go to meetings but they take their allowances. You want the sitting allowance. Meanwhile you did not sit. It is not right to take allowance when you have not sat,” he said.
Prof Richardson was speaking at an effective leadership and corporate governance workshop for board members and managers of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and the Ghana Post in Accra.
Organised by the State Enterprises Commission (SEC), the workshop sought to build the leadership capacity of board members and managers of SOEs to turn their respective institutions around.
Honesty
Prof. Richardson said board members were held in high esteem and were, therefore, expected to exhibit honesty in all their dealings.
“Have honesty and conscience disappeared from people? What is life about if you cheat?” he queried.
Oversight responsibility
He said board members were supposed to scrutinise the strategic propositions by managers to ensure the implementation of profitable projects.
However, he observed that many board members had failed in the discharge of that responsibility and thereby allowed managers to do their “own things”.
Such neglect on the part of board members, he noted, could lead to the implementation of bad projects and the consequent collapse of institutions.
“If you accept to do anything, you have to give your best,” he stressed.
Development
Prof. Richardson said no nation would develop if its wealth-creation efforts were not executed efficiently.
He mentioned knowledge, leadership and resources as the preconditions for the success of companies, adding: “Top managers must also know what it takes to run their companies. The companies will succeed if the managers do the right thing,” he said.
Leadership
The Executive Chairman of the SEC, Dr Camynta Baezie, said the commission had identifed effective leadership as the missing link in SOEs.
Therefore, it was using the workshop as a vehicle to sharpen the leadership skills of board members and managers to be able to turn their companies around.
