Nineteen state-owned companies register losses of ¢ 1.6 billion GH

Business news for Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Source: GNA

2020-11-11

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta says that 19 of the 28 state-owned companies (SOEs) have projected to post losses of around GH ¢ 1.6 billion by 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Mr. Ofori-Atta, the state even had to offer help in paying the wages of its workers because the condition of the state-owned companies was terrible.

He said state-owned companies such as Metro Mass Transport, Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA) posted lower revenues of about 64.24 percent in March and April of this year.

The Minister of Finance spoke at the opening of the 2020 Policy and Governance Forum on the theme: “SIGA: One Year Later, Achievements, Challenges and Prospects”.

The State Governance and Interests Authority (SIGA), established a year ago by the President, seeks to supervise the interest of corporate governance in the activities of SOEs, Joint Venture Capital 9JVC and specific entities of the country.

Ofori-Atta urged the heads of state-owned companies to take personal responsibility for protecting the public purse.

Additionally, he appealed to the heads of state-owned companies to focus on improving the viability and increasing profitability of their operations over the next year.

Ofori-Atta noted that in countries such as the United Kingdom, Singapore and Malaysia, the public sector saw an increase in profitability than the private sector.

He asked CEOs to emulate his example to revitalize the Ghanaian economy in accordance with the government’s plans.

Stephen Asamoah Boateng, Director General of SIGA, said the Authority had undertaken two broad tasks of establishing structures to make SIGA functional and operational to fulfill its mandate.

According to Asamoah Boateng, according to Law 990, the staff of the former Divestment Implementation Committee (DIC) and the State Enterprises Commission (SEC) had been transferred to SIGA and were in the process of recruiting staff to fill other positions in other divisions.

“SIGA has adopted the Balanced Scorecard Strategic Framework (BSSF) plan to solve the anticipated environmental and organizational challenges that the newly created authority is likely to face.

SIGA’s board of directors approved a Corporate Governance Code and a consultation with interested parties was scheduled to start the validation of the code, ”he said.

The head of SIGA said that when the code is validated, it will guide and promote sound corporate governance practices within specific entities because the absence of the code has caused challenges in specific entities.

He indicated that through SIGA, commercial activities have been reactivated among state-owned companies and, therefore, have increased profitability.

Despite the success, Asamoah Boateng noted that SIGA had had some challenges, including the failure to present audited financial statements for a period of more than 10 years, from 2009 to 2018.

This, he pointed out, had affected the implementation of the transitory provision of Law 990, adding that without this, SIGA would not have a clear vision of the assets and liabilities it had inherited from DIC.

Ms. Hollister Duah –Yentumi, General Manager of Operations, SIGA, noted that the forum presented one more opportunity to discuss the strategies that the government is implementing to strengthen the performance of SOEs and JVCs.

Ms Duah-Yentumi said the forum would discuss how to optimize performance across various configurations, consider risk and debt management, as well as maintain compliance without ignoring the central role of governance.

The CEOs of various state-owned companies during the two-day program would also deliberate on how to ensure accountability and transparency across the various entities.

Entities such as the Ghana Publishing Corporation, the Ghana National Gas Company and the Data Protection Commission shared their success stories in their respective presentations.