17 defunct SOEs to be disposed off – Minister

The government is contemplating disposing of about 17 defunct state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that are listed on the books of the State Interest and Governance Account­ability (SIGA), the Minister in charge of Public Enterprises, Mr Joseph Cudjoe, has disclosed.

He said the list of enterprises had already been submitted to cabinet for approval and would be made public once the approval was given.

Mr Cudjoe disclosed this to the media in Accra yesterday when he took his turn at the bi-weekly Minister’s briefing organised by the Ministry of Information.

He said study undertaken by the government and completed in 2019 estimated that the market value of the State’s equity holding in 63 active entities stood at GH¢ 35.7billion as of December 2016.

The Minister explained that State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) accounted for 92 per cent of this value while the remaining eight per cent represented the State’s equity stake in Joint Venture Companies (JVCs).

He said the government had undertaken some steps to bring sanity into the SOE space and these steps included restructuring of active companies, listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange, looking for strategic investors, liquidation and disposing some off totally.

Mr Cudjoe said as part of mea­sures to ensure efficiency he has had interactions with boards and management of about 44 specified entities.

“The visits helped to resolve pertinent issues relating to the entities. It afforded the entities the opportunity to raise challenges they were facing which required support and direction especially from SIGA,” he emphasised.

In addition, he said capacity-building workshops for boards of specified entities had been held for them.

These workshops he said aimed at developing their skills and capacities in four key areas: corporate governance and the board, financial stewardship and accountability, legal and regulatory framework for specified entities and public procurement for Speci­fied Entities

In addition, he said separate training was also organised on corporate governance for board secretaries and the training was to enable them to provide support to their boards and strengthen their understanding of their duties.

Mr Cudjoe noted that the first Public Enterprises League Table (PELT), a ranking tool for assess­ment of performance of specified entities had been instituted and the first one published already.

He said the league was based on performance indicators provided in the performance contract signed between SIGA and the Entities and was expected to engender a healthy competition among the entities for improved performance and to recognise the best perform­ing entities.