Bureau of State Enterprises, World Bank Assess Liberia’s SOE Corporate Governance Findings

The Bureau of State Enterprises (BSE), in partnership with the World Bank Group, has completed a one-day review of Liberia's State Owned Enterprise (SOE) Corporate Governance Assessment findings.

BSE was established in 1985 by an act of the national legislature to guarantee that state-owned enterprises are supervised by ensuring that the institution's true goals and objectives are met.

However, the review of the assessment findings was aimed at finding ways on how to improve the governance and performance of the country's state-owned enterprises.

It also outlined a future strategic reform plan to improve its service delivery across the country and improve the working relationship within state enterprises. 

Jamoil P. Cummings, Director General of BSE, stated during the event's opening remarks that as the director of the Bureau, he is extremely concerned about the organization leaving its mark on government and producing the finest results possible.

He said that the nation’s state-owned enterprises are what propel the economy's expansion and growth, and urged the appropriate authorities to help with improvements in areas such as corporate governance, financial reporting, and compliance scores, among others. 

He claims that as part of the BSE's reform process, the institution hopes to see important nation share-related issues monitored effectively by the appropriate corporate authorities. 

Cummings mentioned legal reform, data management, and economic expansion projects for the sector as the top priority issues that the bureau under his supervision has cataloged to deal with very soon.

According to him, one of the goals of the legislative reform initiatives would be to draft laws that would promote cooperation and governance among state-run businesses. 

Cummings said, “There are some concerns that enterprises are overlapping functions, and certain acts of the legislature conflict with the workings of SOEs as well. The ‘State Enterprise and Interest Governance Authority Act’ will give the bureau the authority to guide every SOE and there will be legal review of the process.”

The Director General also stated that because the sector is what drives the nation's economy, the legal reform process would also enhance and improve how government authorities work in the sector's operations. 

Cummings claims that the main goals of the process are to build corporate governance standards and provide efficient salary bills for SOEs to track fixed assets. 

“We are into financial operations and, most importantly, some state enterprises are benefiting from international partners and others are not, so in order to promote transparency and accountability, the debt portfolio, wage bill, and other things need to be looked at keenly,” he said.

Cummings used the medium to call on state-owned enterprises to take advantage of the timely reporting as BSE continues to work together with more partners to aid the sector.

He said his attention has also been drawn to the delay of SOEs in presenting their financial and other compliance reports needed to the bureau for review. 

“It is very important to make your report to us so that our international partners can review the work we do at the various institutions. If this is not done, there is a possibility that there will be no trust in the operations of this government, which will greatly undermine our future partnership.” Representatives from the World Bank, Ministry of Finance and Development Planning as well as various SOEs including the Liberia Telecommunications Authority, the LPRC, NPA, and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications graced the workshop.