Rockson Dogbegah
President of the Institute of Directors Ghana, Rockson Dogbegah has appealed to the president to allow the governing board of directors to appoint Chief Executive Officers (CEO) of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
He indicated that boardroom battles often ensue between CEOs and board members because most CEOs are not accountable to the boards of those institutions.
“It’s not good at all for any other person to appoint CEOs, as they owe allegiance to him and not owners of the organisations,” he said.
He said that good succession planning as a requisite of good corporate governance would also require an amendment to the transitional acts to allow boards of SOEs to continue to operate, irrespective of the government in power.
He suggested that managers of SOE should be assessed based on clear Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and overall performance of the organisations.
“In line with the government’s agenda to industrialise the country, it’s about time we relook the selection of people, who are in leadership positions in SOE,” he added.
He made the suggestion during a panel discussion at the 4th edition of the Ghana CEO Summit on the topic, “Ethics and Corporate Governance: How Corporate Governance can ensure that high ethical standards are met to restore trust.”
The chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) Prof Stephen Adei, for his part, said most SOEs collapse because they do not adhere to corporate governance.
The lack of discipline in observing corporate governance, he said, manifest in the greed of the leaders of organisations, corruption, board interference in operations of CEOs and sultry bonus demands from employees while SOE sunk in debt.
He described corporate governance as a system that specifies the direction and strategies of an organization.
Prof Adei, however, said adherence to corporate governance is largely dependent on competence, ethics and character of those at the helm of affairs.
He stressed the need for a systematic approach to address the moral and ethical values that are lacking in the general culture of the society, especially at the national level.
“Parliamentarians can for four years receive double pay and they won’t even say they are sorry and nothing happens to them. Also, when most you go to your village, they are expecting you to act like Bill Gates and they don’t even ask you how you got your money,” he said.
Prof Adei also called for the strengthening of legislative framework, supervisory regimes and enforcement that would ensure adherence to standards and rules on corporate governance.
By Issah Mohammed