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
The post Don’t Appoint CEOs – Dogbegah Tells President appeared first on DailyGuide Network.
