By Binta Jaiteh
The National Assembly’s Public Enterprises Committee (PEC) has urged the government to ensure the effective functioning and implementation of the State Own Enterprise (SOE) Commission as per the Act.
Speaking during the tabling of the report by the chairperson of the committee, Lamin J Sannehalso recommended that, the commission with other relevant stakeholders must ensure that boards exercise effective oversight functions.
He said that boards must ensure Management exercise transparent and prudent management of the day-to-day running of the corporations.
“Furthermore, the executive must ensure avoidance of interferences in the priorities of SOEs and there must be exclusive and complete financial independence in the execution of their mandate,” Hon. Sanneh added.
According to the chairperson, boards and management must align strategic investment with the strategic plans of SOEs adding that they must ensure that all prior year audit issues are resolved and reported to the committee on the status of implementation.
Sanneh said his committee had observed that most of the boards do not have functional and effective sub-committees.
He points out that there are legal and administrative challenges surrounding the governance and the institutional setup of most SOEs. “There is also a challenge in the line of authority and the functions of the key stakeholders (Board, Management, Line Ministry, MOFEA and OP),” he said.
“The SOEs constitute a significant percentage (about 50%) of the GDP which should not be underestimated and is high time for this noble Assembly to be extra vigilant and take its oversight role seriously in improving the status quo of the SOEs,” Hon. Sanneh concluded.
