Divestiture committee asked to take critical look at land tenure

Akosombo (Eastern Region), 14th June 99 -

 

Members of the Council of State, Presidential Staffers and MPs have called on the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC), not to gloss over the issue of land ownership of divested enterprises, remuneration and to support entrepreneurial capacities of Ghanaians to make its operations meaningful.

They also urged the Committee to stratify companies that are doing well and those not doing well and to ensure that liabilities of divested companies are factored into the cost of the going concern.

This was during a forum at a seminar at Aksosombo to look at the pace and mode of divestiture of state-owned enterprises, list views of the participants on the programme and to seek their advice on how the programme implementation could be enhanced.

It was also to give the participants in-depth knowledge of the programme and to advice the President appropriately on matters concerning them as well as to educate the people on what divestiture is all about.

Professor Patrick Twumasi, of the Office of the President noted that it did not make economic sense if after selling some entities, the new owners have to take on the cost of liabilities which invariably goes into the total cost, thereby making the companies face uncertain future.

He noted that government must also be interested in the fact that investors can rehabilitate and expand to the extent that more Ghanaians can be employed.

Alhaji M.A. Seidu was concerned about the situation where some SOE's are divested without due regard to the fact that the lands on which they are sited belong to the chiefs and people of the area, who often do not benefit from the proceeds of divestiture.

He was however, assured by Mr Enim Asare, Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, that it is in line with such deficiencies that the Commission is represented on the DIC.

He gave the assurance that divested companies thus receive some rent as "the leases given to the new owners of the companies so divested, have a clause that requires them to pay rent to the chief or owners the land".

Mr Asare said it was unfortunate that many people in the country do not register acquisition of new landed property.

"This permeates all the government institutions and is very prevalent in the cocoa industry, former state farms and palm plantations nation-wide".

Mr J H Mensah, MP for Sunyani and Minority leader in Parliament, who served under Dr Kwame Nkrumah, President of the first republic when state owned enterprises were introduced, admitted that there were some mishaps in the operations and structure of some of them.

He said even though some of them were waste and seemed to be a drain on national coffers, "it was with a strategic vision", saying, "what is missing today in the operations of divestiture is that there is no vision".

Mr Mensah advocated the removal of Ministers of state serving on boards of government institutions to make them more independent to take bold and unfettered decisions.

"Government still has stakes in some of the divested enterprises and means that it still has control in them in a way. But these companies must get rid of the ministers on their boards to enable them to function more efficiently.

"This is to forestall a situation of conflict of interest".

He condemned the situation where the privatisation of the financial sector is being done through the Ministry of Finance, and said "it is not good since it affects public confidence in the privatisation process. The Ministry of Finance's role should be at an arms length and not as a main player", Mr Mensah said.

Mr Mensah said this is necessary especially where the nation is approaching an election period and investors would want to wait and see how the transitional period is managed.

Mr C. K. Dewornu, former Inspector General of Police, was not happy about the attitude of banks in the country who deny Ghanaians support in their bid to buy enterprises listed for divestiture.

He said "many Ghanaians do not have the financial capacity to buy some of these companies on divestiture and when they go to the banks they are not any better. Yet when foreign companies approach them, immediately, they manage to get the very loans locals were denied".

Mr Agbodo, chief executive of the of DIC said the committee has not closed its doors to Ghanaian consultants but stressed that some Ghanaian consultants are not well versed in the process of divestiture.

They would have to under study some of the foreign consultants, "a process DIC is facilitating by requiring consultants to have Ghanaian partners".

Hajia Fati Seidu questioned why the Nasia Rice Mill has not been divested and has been lying idle for so long?

Mr Agbodo and Mr Kwame Peprah, Minister of Finance described the problem as "jurisdictional" where there was the need to iron out problems surrounding the smooth divestiture of the Nasia Rice Mill between some banks, Ministries of Finance, Trade and Industry, Food and Agriculture and the DIC.

GRi?/