State-owned enterprises sign contracts to ensure transparency and accountability

Accra (Greater Accra) 27 April ?99

Thirty state-owned enterprises on Tuesday signed performance agreements with the government to run the affairs of their organisations profitably.

The contracts are to streamline and strengthen the efficiency of management of the SOEs and ensure transparency and accountability.

Chief executives and chairmen of Boards of Directors of the SOEs signed on behalf of their organisations whilst Mr Kofi Opoku Manu, Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance, initialled on behalf of the Government.

In a speech read on his behalf, Mr Kwame Peprah, Minister of Finance, said the contracts are a significant milestone in the development of the country.

The new Performance Contract has introduced an effective monitoring and evaluation system, otherwise called the new Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) System, by the State Enterprises Commission (SEC).

Mr Peprah said the system uses modern, cost effective management techniques aimed at ensuring the realisation of the Vision 2020 Agenda.

The performance of SOEs for 1997 was appreciable due to the orientation they went through using the new system.

Mr Peprah said SEC, which oversees the functions of SOEs, has not yet received all the required information to evaluate the performance of SOEs for 1998.

The contract signed will be the road maps for 1999, he said and expressed the hope that the SOEs will abide by the terms and provisions in the documents.

Mr Peprah reminded them that as a new technique, pitfalls and difficulties are bound to rear their heads and said there was already some anxiety.

Mr Frank K. Ocran, Executive Chairman of SEC, said SOEs were moving away from the use of graduated levels in setting targets to the more realistic and historical-based trend analysis.

The method affords each enterprise the opportunity to assess its potentials and select a performance target and work towards its realisation.