Sanitize the selections and appointments of Boards and CEOs of SOEs for growth and development
Report by Ben LARYEA
Professor Albert Puni at the Faculty of Management Studies in the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) has called for a change in the selection and appointment process of Boards and Heads of State – Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
He said the persistent failures of SOEs as a result of poor performance are largely based on the appointing authorities who are not applying independent, technocrats and merit based in the appointing process.
“There should be a transparent and merit-based Boards on nonpartisan lines in the selection and appointment processes for SOEs as successive governments have not applied effective leadership recruitment of SOEs.
Prof. Albert Puni was speaking at an inaugural lecture organized by UPSA on the topic “State – Owned Enterprise Governance: Towards A Sustainable National Development in Accra.
According to him, the usual political mediated appointments process brings to bear weak and poorly constituted Boards which lack the necessary skills and diversity perspective to provide effective oversight.
Besides, some entrenched CEOs are sometimes more powerful than their Board resulting in conflicts of interest between CEOs and their respective Boards as they are less accountable to their performance on issues.
“There are also corporate governance issues such as suboptimal decision making, increase agency cost, poor financial performance and weak public trust,” he said adding that ineffective selection of Board members of CEOs of SOE’s does not drive sustainable growth and development.
For his part, the Vice-Chancellor UPSA, Prof. John Kwaku Mensah Mawutor said the inaugural lecture will go beyond the University operations as students will use it as a case studies in relations to write ups and others forms of academics materials since it touches on governance and the public space.
