President of the Institute of Directors in Ghana, Rockson Dogbegah, has said that the element of corporate governance in both private and public institutions in Ghana is lacking of the appropriate skills and fairness in the selection processes of its Board of Directors.
Rockson Dogbegah posited that appointees in government, for instance, are often selected based on familiarity or a return of a favour offered and not on merits or strong leadership characteristics.
“Here in this country for both the public and private sector space, selection of board members at the political level is about political composition. Once you supported effectively during the electioneering campaign you are assured of a Board position.”
As a result, he said there is a disconnect between the input and output because the qualified people who are to make the decisions are not on top of the subject.
“The outcome is what we see today. As a country from our independence, if you compare Ghana to Rwanda, big difference. If you compare Ghana to Singapore, Malaysia, big difference. The reason is that we are not getting the selection right.”
Addressing CEOs at this year’s Ghana CEO Summit, Mr. Dogbegah noted that effective leadership is about the board balance hence if business owners do not get the selection process right to promote ethical culture, it becomes challenging because “ethical culture is about ethical and effective leadership.”
For the private sector he indicated that CEOs do not approach institutions like Institution of Directors whose main agenda focuses on promoting corporate governance and bringing together neutral Boards.
He said it leads to a selection process of family and friends.
These people, he said, usually lack the appropriate leadership that brings result and good performance adding that “cannot effectively control the organization.”
The President of the Institute disclosed that his outfit is working on a plan that will impact the youth at the corporate level.
He recommended that Ghana must develop a certain agenda which addresses key areas of the corporate world which are the society, environment, and the economy.
“We shouldn’t be looking only at the economic side as a company. There should be a good balance and we have a national agenda to that effect.” He stressed.
