Minister for Finance Ken Ofori-Atta says 19 out of 28 State-Owned Enterprises (SOE’s) are projected to post losses of about Ghs 1.6 billion for the 2020 fiscal year.
The inability of the 19 SOEs to post profit for the year, the Minister noted is on the account of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the Finance Minister, the 19 SOEs were in dire condition to the point that Government had to offer help in the payments of salaries for its workers.
He made the disclosure speaking at the opening of the 2020 Policy and Governance Forum on the theme: SIGA: One year on, Achievements, Challenges and Prospects.
The Minister however failed to disclose the 19 SOEs that recorded no profit for the year.
Speaking further at the event, Mr Ofori-Atta urged CEOs of SOEs to enhance the viability and profitability of their operations in 2021, adding that in countries like the United Kingdom, Singapore and Malaysia, public enterprises despite the pandemic recorded an increase in profitability than the private sector.
“I encourage CEOs to emulate their example to revitalize Ghana’s economy in line with the government’s plans,” he noted.
The State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) established a year ago by President Akufo-Addo, seeks to oversee the interest of corporate governance in the activities SOE’s, Joint Venture Capital 9JVC’s and specified entities in the country.
Also speaking at the event was Stephen Asamoah Boateng, Director General of SIGA, who posited that the Authority had undertaken two broad tasks of putting in place structures to make SIGA functional and operational to discharge its mandate.
According to him, in line with Act 990, the staff of erstwhile Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC) and the State Enterprises Commission (SEC) had been transferred to SIGA and that it was in the process of recruiting staff to fill other positions in other divisions.
A Code of Corporate Governance has also been approved by SIGA’s Board in consultation with stakeholders and is scheduled to commence the validation of the code.
He further noted that, the code when validated would guide and promote sound corporate governance practices within specified entities, because the absence of the code had brought about challenges in specified entities.
