Salaries of CEOs to be pegged

• Posted on August 20, 2019
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Chief Executive Officer of State Enterprises Commission, Stephen Asamoah Boateng, has disclosed that the salaries of CEOs of state-owned enterprises will soon be pegged.

The move comes after a committee established by the Commission to look into the salaries of CEOs, completed and presented a report on the issue.

Mr Asamoah Boateng in an interview with Joy News’ Elton Brobbey said, the recommendations of the committee are being implemented and a ceiling will be adopted to ensure no CEO earns beyond a certain threshold.

“We’ve started with the Board allowances. The area of the salaries is not as simple as is coming out…you also are looking at attracting the best in the system but there will be a bandwidth with which we will say ‘you cannot go beyond or below this’,” he said.

He also indicated, the President will still hold the prerogative to appoint board members and CEOs of state enterprises under a new law regulating the sector.

“The function of the Commission is now to advise the president not to take that power away from him and there are areas where you can prepare a list he can choose from.”

He added that performance contract systems have also been put in place for the CEOs to ensure that they go into work knowing that they are protected.

In a related development, a new Authority to streamline and address the oversight and coordinating challenges that have bedeviled state enterprises and agencies, has been launched.

Known as the State Interest and Governance Authority, (SIGA), the new entity will also monitor the performance of State-owned enterprises and sort out ownership issues.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who launched the Authority in Accra at the 2019 Policy and Governance Forum, urged the Management and Board to repudiate the culture of failure and make state-owned enterprises profitable.

In the early years of Ghana’s Independence, several Enterprises were established to operate in critical sectors of the economy to improve the standard of its people.

To provide institutional support to enhance the performance of these enterprises, several reforms were introduced through the enactment of status and establishment of associated agencies to deal with oversight and coordination.

With the passage of time, most of the enterprises have become outmoded and suffer failure.

Most of these SOEs today continue to perform below expectation and others near collapse because of its huge indebtedness.

It’s for this reason that SIGA was established by an Act of Parliament to put state-owned enterprises and joint venture corporations on the path of profit-making. 

President Akufo-Addo was hopeful the new Authority would help infuse best private sector practices and make these SOEs profitable.

The President warned the board of severe legal consequences for mismanaging such state institutions.