The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta says government has adopted and initiated the implementation of an action plan to improve Corporate Governance of State Owned Enterprises (SOE’s) and other public sector institutions.
The Finance Minister disclosed this on Tuesday (September 25), at the launch of the 2018 SOE Policy and Governance Forum in Accra.
The focus of this year’s forum is to promote good corporate governance in the SOE sector through accountability, transparency and integrity.
Minister of Finance noted that as part of activities to implement the action plan, the Ministry will enforce the relevant administrative sanction in accordance with section 98 of the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act.
“The successful implementation of these action plans will not only make our SOE’s sector the leader in corporate governance reforms in our country but even more importantly improve the decision making process in the management of SOE’s” he added.
The Minister emphasized that, joint venture companies in which government has equity are equally enjoined to comply with the provisions of the PFM Act.
Speaking at the launch, the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta said, government sees a unique opportunity to address some of these inefficiencies leveraging the principles of good corporate governance in SOE’s and other public sector institutions.
The 2018 SOE’s forum which is the second in a series, brings together key stakeholders in the SOE’s sector to deliberate on how well they have done in the past year.
The two day forum provides a platform for the exchange of best practices and ideas regarding the opportunities and challenges that State Owned Enterprises and other joint venture companies are confronted with.
The Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo stressed the need to preserve public’s trust in government institutions.
“We have an onerous responsibility to preserve the public’s trust in government by delivering on policy outcomes and safe guarding taxpayer funds.” He posited.
The World Bank Country Director, Henry Kerali noted that SOE’s should be allowed to be independent.
This he said, will ensure that any public or social objective impose on them will clearly be identified and directly financed by government.
Story by: Mabel Adorkor Annang
