Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has told heads of state-owned enterprises that they have a crucial responsibility to support the government’s economic recovery agenda.
He made the remarks at a meeting held to review the performance of specified state-owned enterprises.
Dr. Forson said to achieve the aim of making these enterprises viable will require hard work and strategic decision-making at all levels of SOE leadership.
He underscored the need for sacrifice and fiscal discipline to ensure long-term financial stability, adding that a commitment to excellence and accountability is needed to restore public confidence in our state institutions.
The minister said there was the need for collective actions since that will determine whether we accelerate Ghana’s economic recovery or hinder it.
He urged all the leaders of the SOEs to stand together in support of President John Dramani Mahama’s vision to build the Ghanaian economy we all want.
In his remarks, he said some of the SOEs are posing significant fiscal risk to the economy, and the two most threatening and most worrisome are the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD).
To reverse this trend, he said,’We must implement a bold turnaround strategy that transforms loss SOEs into financially viable self-sustained institutions. The strategy will include capacity-building initiatives to strengthen leadership and operational efficiency. The second would be the enhancement of corporate governance training to ensure strict regulatory compliance in all SOEs. The third is financial discipline and strategic decision-making to restore profitability.
He also highlighted a specific issue facing SOEs, which is the compliance of financial reporting obligations.
‘’Mr. President, the Public Financial Management Act, Act 2016, (Act 921) outlines a clear financial management and reporting requirement for all SOEs. Section 95 of the Act mandates that SOEs must prepare annual accounts not later than two months at the end of each financial year. SOEs must submit audited financial statements to the Minister within four months after the end of their financial year. Moving forward, the Ministry of Finance will be working closely with SIGA to ensure strict compliance with this regulatory requirement.’’
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
