President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has mandated all state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to furnish their audited financial statements for the year 2023 by May 2024.
Failure to comply with this directive will result in sanctions for the non-compliant entities.
This directive was issued during the 2024 annual policy and governance forum of state-owned enterprises, highlighting the president’s unwavering commitment to ensuring compliance.
The forum serves as a platform to assess the performance of all SOEs in the previous year, aligning with the government’s objectives.
During the launch of a policy on corporate governance, President Akufo-Addo urged SOEs to submit their audited accounts by May 15th of the current year, emphasizing the repercussions of failing to meet this deadline on financing arrangements with the World Bank.
The Public Finance Management Act mandates the submission of audited financial statements by the end of April each year.
The president’s directive aims to address compliance delays and bolster the overall performance of state-owned enterprises.
“Failure to achieve this target will affect adversely the terms of our financing arrangements with the World Bank. The preparation and publication of SOEs have always suffered delays due to a litany of constraints.
Key among them is non-compliance for public entities to the submission of financial statements. In 2020, SOEs were published in March 2022.”
“The 2021 SOE was published in January 2024, this year. The 2022 SOE is now at the final stage of completion. We should not tolerate these delays any further. All board chairs, entities and management teams are hereby instructed to comply fully with the submission requirements from SIGA.
The Public Finance Management Act mandates the submission of audited financial statements of specified entities by the end of April each year.”
John Boadu, the Acting Director-General of the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), is optimistic about the positive impact of the new policy on corporate governance and reducing reliance on government.
He affirmed that SIGA will meticulously oversee SOEs’ compliance with the president’s directive and will enforce appropriate measures against those who do not meet the deadline.