IoD-Gh President explains why members are not appointed directors of SOEs
President of the Institute of Directors-Ghana (IoD-Gh), Rockson Dogbegah, has explained why members of the Institute are not appointed to the boards of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
Touching on the issue during the virtual maiden edition of the IoD Chairs Forum on Tuesday, Mr Dogbegah indicated that a legislative instrument defining the constitution of boards of SOEs account for the exclusion of members of the IoD-Gh from boards of SOEs.
“The current major challenge to members of the IoD-Gh becoming board members of SOEs is due to a legislative instrument defining the constitution of boards of SOEs. But we have discussions with the President about it and we hope to see that legislative instrument soon reviewed [sic],” stated Mr Dogbegah.
He made the statement in response to some suggestions made by Dr Patrick Chasinga, founding member and past president of the Institute of Directors Zambia (IoDZ) on how members of the IoD-Gh can become part of boards of Ghanaian SOEs.
The suggestions made by Dr Chasinga, was premised on how the IoDZ advocated for its members to be appointed to boards of SOEs in Zambia.
According to him, the IoDZ started with dialogues with its government, first with the Zambian Finance and Trade Ministries and then later with the Zambian President himself.
“We first started by establishing dialogues with government at the level of the Finance ministry and Trade Ministry as well as the President himself. We invited him to most of our meetings which he honoured. Generally the President was receptive to us and the proposals we put before him on the need to reform the country’s corporate governance practices,” Dr Chasinga noted.
Speaking further on the issue, Dr Chasinga advised the IoD-Gh not to use the media as the channel to get government’s attention on some corporate governance practices or reforms it would want implemented, saying doing so will make government defensive.
“Don’t go to the press to say what you want to tell the government, because the moment you do that, government goes into defensive mood.”
“But rather, go to the relevant government agencies, engage and persuade them to implement the corporate governance practices you would want to see implemented,” he said.
