By Godwill Arthur Mensah
Accra, Aug. 16, GNA – The Minister of Public Enterprises, Mr Joseph Cudjoe, said more State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) are signing performance contracts to improve efficiency, accountability and profitability of their operations under the Akufo-Addo-led Government.
He, for instance, said in 2016 only six SOEs signed a performance contract compared to 25 in 2017, 41 in 2018, 47 both in 2019 and 2020, 64 both in 2021 and 2022 and 73 in 2023.
The Minister explained that the high number was due to the establishment of the Public Enterprises Secretariat and the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) mandated to have oversight responsibilities over the SOEs operations and ensure that the interests of the State was protected.
Mr Cudjoe made these known on Thursday during the Minister’s press briefing organised by the Ministry of Information in Accra.
“Sustaining the Improved Corporate Governance Structures to Deliver Performance of Specified Entities” was the topic for the briefing, which provided detailed activities of the Ministry and SIGA’s oversight responsibilities over the 175 Specified Entities (SEs)in the past three and half years.
By the end of August the State Ownership Report (SOR) of all the 175 Specified Entitieswould be published to enable the public to assess and understand how they had performed in terms of compliance, transparency and accountability, the Minister said.
Mr Cudjoe said within the period his Ministry had rolled out a State Ownership Policy to guide the boards, managements and staff of the specified entities on how to manage funds they received from the Central Government.
The Ministry had also implemented the Code of Corporate Governance for public service organisations to guide their operations.
“Since independence, this is the best time the public enterprises are really doing well in terms of compliance, accountability, transparency and profitability,” he noted.
“In 2016, only two Stated-Owned Enterprises provided their audited accounts but as I speak now 52 SOEs have appeared before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament with their audited accounts while 55 of the SOEs have already prepared their audited accounts.”
Mr Cudjoe said he had visited 49 SOEs to assess their work environment and undertaken capacity-building training for boards, managements and staff of those entities to improve efficiency.
Meanwhile, Mr John Boadu, the Director-General of SIGA, in an interview with journalists after the briefing, stated that previously there was not much transparency and accountability among SOEs because of the absence of an institution or body with an oversight responsibility over them.
“In 2016, only two SOEs presented their audited accounts report out of 175, and so, if there is no SIGA to enforce compliance, I believe most SOEs wouldn’t present their audited reports,” he said.
“At the moment, 55 SOEs have presented their audited accounts and by the close of the year 130 would have presented their audited accounts.”
In terms of the contributions of the SOEs to the economy, Mr Boadu said in 2020 they contributed about GHc20 billion to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and increased to GHc419 billion in 2022.
That, he said, was as a result of SIGA’s push for compliance, transparency and accountability among SOEs to present audited accounts.
On irregularities by some SOEs, the SIGA Boss said in 2022 alone the Auditor-General’s Report showed GHc15 billion losses by SOEs, however, the figure had declined to GHc8.8 billion, representing 41.46 per cent reduction of irregularities.
GNA