With his resumption of office as Executive Chairman of State Enterprises Commission, Hon. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng has injected a new lease of life into this State entity, which otherwise has been lying fallow and its core mandate of overseeing good corporate practices of SOEs, woefully not up to scratch. Upon assumption of office, the Executive Chairman, as part of working-visits, has so far visited over twenty-four [24] of these State-owned Enterprises.

During these visits, Hon. Asamoah-Boateng has been given a lot of insight into myriad of systemic problems besetting these State Enterprises. Indeed, with these State Enterprise holding over 40% of Government assets, it is imperative to ensure their survival; and this cannot be realized when personnel manning these entities are not of the required skill, knowledge and competence.

It is in this regard, that, Hon. Asamoah-Boateng has initiated a programme by which Board Members, Management and staff of these State-Owned Enterprises are being given training in Corporate Governance. A series of these programmes have already been organized for Board Members and Management of these State Enterprises including ECG.

It is in pursuance of this vision that on Wednesday, 27th September, 2017, a training programme under the theme ‘GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, THE ROLE OF THE BOARD OF STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES’, was organized by the State Enterprises Commission and facilitated by Ishmael Yamson&Associates, at the Royal Senchi Resort, Akosombo in the Eastern Region, for Board Members of Ghana Civil Aviation Authority. Members of the Board were taken through Board Effectiveness, Financial Reporting & Analysis.

In his lecture, Dr. Ismael Yamson said “State-owned Enterprises hold over 40% of Government productive assets and we therefore need SOEs that are managed properly”.

He made reference to “recent series of publications by the Financial Times on Ghana which painted a gloomy picture of our economy”, which therefore makes it key for us to manage our SOEs in a way that will enable them to, at-least, break even or record remarkable financial turnover.

Dr. Yamson challenged the participants to be meticulous with scrutinizing all documents, particularly financials, before appending signatures because “if you fail to do so, then, you risk being culpable for any resultant repercussion should there be deliberately incorporated cooked figures”.

He quoted Colin Powel’s “if you make the attempt to please everyone, you are already a failure”, to buttress his point to encouraging the participants “not to capitulate to pressures from political officialdom against personal conscience and integrity”.

He also advised the participants against unquenchable desire to make money through crooked means by quoting Paul Polman of Uniliever who said “It is possible to make money acting virtuously”.

In his remarks at the end of the programme, the Board Chairman of GCAC, Air Cdre. Rexford G. M. Acquah [Rtd] said “with this level of insight, we have been exposed to at this training, I have now realized the enormity of responsibility which comes with being a Board Member, and we promise to give our best to significantly improve the operations of Ghana Aviation Company”.

The Director General of GCAA, Mr. Simon Allotey, on his part, bemoaned the current situation where MDs of SOEs have “multiplicity of authorities to report to, which often tends to put pressure on them and therefore makes it difficult for them to focus on their core duties”.

In his remarks, the Executive Chairman of State Enterprises Commission, Hon. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, thanked the participants and promised them “continuous support, by way of further training programmes, to enhance their skills and sharpen them for the task given them by His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo”.

On the question of MDs being pulled from all directions by different political players as expressed by Mr. Simon Allotey, Director General-GCAA, Hon. Asamoah-Boateng assured him that “this is going to end, with the creation of the Single Entity which is going to provide a platform for MDs to channel their problems, peer-review themselves, engage in inter-trading etc.”

The Executive Chairman further stated that ‘the role of this Single Entity is not to micro-manage the SOEs but rather provide a conducive platform” for them to be “efficient and thrive”.

Hon. Asamoah-Boateng’s team from State Enterprises Commission was made up of Mr. John Kwesi Mensah, Head of Performance,Monitoring and Evaluation, and Mr. Justice Abeeku Newton-Offei, Office of The President.

Story by: Newton-Offei Justice Abeeku
Office of The President.
Flagstaff House.
Kanda-Accra.