By
Morkporkpor Anku, GNA
Accra, Jan. 08, GNA
– The State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA) will publish a performance
League Table of individual Chief Executives Officers of State-Owned Enterprises
and the entities by July, 2020.
Mr Stephen Asamoah
Boateng, the Director General of SIGA, who announced this, said the move was to
ensure effective and efficient management of the enterprises.
He urged the CEOs to
get the basics right, be innovative and entrepreneurial, especially how they
inter-trade and the support each other.
Mr Boateng was
addressing the 2020 Performance Contract Signing Ceremony for 80 Specific
State-Owned Enterprises in Accra.
The event was on the
theme: “Transforming State Entities to Contribute Significantly Towards ‘Ghana
Beyond Aid’”.
The contracts were
signed between the Board of Directors and Management of Specific State-Owned
Enterprises on one part, the Government, represented by SIGA and the respective
Sector Ministries on the other side, in fulfilment of a statutory provision
under the Regulations (196) of the Public Financial Management Act (L.I 2378).
The contracts
focused on enhancing service delivery and efficiency of 19 different sectors of
the economy, including manufacturing, agriculture, housing, trade, energy,
aviation, roads, education, science, labour relations and transportation.
SIGA was established
in June 2019 with the passage of the SIGA Act 2019 (Act 990); after the repeal
of the State Enterprises Commission and the Divestiture Implementation Acts.
He said SIGA would
set off at building data on all Specific State-Owned Enterprises and carry out
vigorous monitoring of every entity that was signing the Contract.
“When SIGA staff
call on you by any mode of contact, it is important your response rate is SMART
and there are penalties for non-responsiveness and missing set targets and
deadlines but we do not want any of you getting into this area,” he added.
The Director-General
said the SIGA law had given the Authority real teeth to bite and it would not
shirk its responsibility to sanction.
“SIGA will work with
you to come up with the Code of Corporate Governance and Conduct. This must be
completed quickly to enable SIGA ensure higher standard of corporate practices
across board,” Mr Boateng said.
He said with the
enactment of the SIGA law, the Performance Contracts been signed had serious
implications for all, indicating that they had departed from the Commission
era, where non-compliance did not mean anything.
“This time there are
heavy penalties ranging from refusal to grant bonuses and financial charges,”
he said.
He said there would
also be a recommendation to appointing authority to remove Management and Board
of Directors and prosecution leading to court fines and jail terms.
He said many of the
entities were saddled with huge legacy debts, which was hindering their smooth
operations, while quite a number were not able to honour their statutory
obligations causing all sorts of unpleasant public discourse and headline news.
He said a sizeable number
have also lost business focus and have indulged in activities, which were not
their core operations while others have jettisoned good corporate governance
practices leading to avoidable challenges and decisions as well as Boardroom
wrangling, some of which were in the public domain.
He called on the
entities to concentrate on the future, which needed everyone’s utmost
cooperation, to realise the President’s Vision through a focus on creativity,
investments in human resource and modern business technology to deliver on
their core mandate for which they were established.
“Avoid any hint of
wrongdoing or scandals and, thirdly consciously promote local businessmen and
businesswomen,” he added.
GNA
