Parliament passes law to protect state interest in state-owned companies | Parliament

Parliament enacted the 2019 Bill on State Interests and Governance Authority, which allows the creation of an authority to monitor the interests of the state in the state-owned enterprises, joint ventures and other entities.

The law must also ensure that sub-government companies comply with good business practices to promote the growth of industry and commerce.

The Minister of Planning, Professor George Gyan Baffour, introduced the motion for third reading of the bill on behalf of Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, with the support of the Minister of Control and Finance. evaluation, Mr. Anthony Akoto Osei.

Committee Report

According to the report of Parliament's Finance Committee signed by its chair, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah, the new law would reform the governance structure of all entities.

"Indeed, none of the government's interventions to streamline operations and operations of state entities has had the expected impact.

"As a result, we decided to adopt the single entity model to help harmonize the guidelines and policies of supervision and administration of entities in which the state has an interest" , did he declare.

According to the report, many corporate networks consistently underperformed their targets, while others continued to experience losses, which led to an badessment of the corporate governance framework for the corporate sector. business networks from 2013 to 2015.

The valuation, which involved 39 wholly-owned SoE, revealed an overall loss of approximately 15 million GH ¢ at the end of fiscal 2012.

Coordination

According to the report, the Authority would strengthen coordination in the management of state interests and ensure a clear hierarchy of corporate responsibilities and other interests.

"It is expected that this will improve performance, improve the profitability of the entities and lead to an increase in returns for the state in the form of dividends and surpluses", he said. declared.

According to the report, after the reorganization of the entities, any staff member deemed to be lost would be integrated into another public service organization where his expertise would be essential to deal with the job losses.

Regarding the debts to the SoE, the report indicates that the Commission of State Enterprises is in the process of establishing an up-to-date debt situation of SoE, adding that the Authority would be mandated to report the financial position of the SoEs, including their debt portfolios. annually.

According to the report, the initial cost of setting up the Authority was estimated at 15,151,076 GH ¢, including employee compensation, use of goods and services as well as capital expenditures.