Living Good Corporate Governance

‘STOP talking corporate governance, live it’, is a phrase from a not-yet-published reader’s letter.

An apt one indeed. Lip service is paid to this subject, time and time again, but little is done in reality to improve the situation.The country is staggering from one crisis to another in various parastatals, and yet we still can’t seem to get things on the right track.Various heads of several parastatals and State-owned enterprises, both past and present, have been accused of wrongdoing, only to resign timeously; and/or even be given alternate employment at the same time that they face various fraud and corruption charges.’Innocent until proven guilty’ is the excuse proffered by those employing former top officials who have engaged in questionable activities, and it is really not acceptable.When will we learn that individuals, especially at senior levels of society, need to be made responsible for their actions? This includes former and acting CEOs as well as Board members, who by now should surely know that they have a responsibility and an accountability in the positions they are paid well for.CEOs and Boards in some instances take decisions that have serious financial consequences, and yet they are never held accountable.Take for example, the most recent case of the Roads Authority, whose axing of certain top officials has been ruled ‘null and void’ by the Labour Court.The parastatal in question now faces potential costly damages claims from the former officials, money they can ill afford.Given the negative scenario that has unfolded over the past couple of years with regard to lack of good corporate governance; given also the increased emphasis on the campaign to eradicate corruption and graft from the level of President down; it is seriously depressing that we are apparently unable to make any inroads in improving the situation – either by appointing the right people to the senior posts in question or by making Board members accountable for their actions.At the Roads Contractor Company, suspended CEO Kelly Nghixulifwa resigned last week in the wake of a forensic audit at yet another beleaguered parastatal.A statement by the Board said the resignation was by ‘mutual agreement’ and so too, presumably, was the apparently generous settlement he’s been paid, that in addition to having been on paid suspension since August last year! The public cannot be blamed for the cynicism of thinking that when one CEO departs, having cost the company in question substantial amounts of money through bad governance, probably direct theft and fraud, legal costs as well as paid suspension, another one comes in his/her place, only to do it all over again! We simply cannot go on like this.There is little money for the maintenance of existing roads, let alone building of new ones, but the pillage of our scarce resources continues unchecked, with no one held liable for missing millions in a variety of different State-owned enterprises.What will it take, and when will the message be finally driven home that people in positions of responsibility have to be made accountable for their actions, whether they are CEOs or senior management or Board members who can surely be expected to face the music when they’ve been paid generously to oversee the governance of the SOEs in question? It needs to happen now.Lip service is paid to this subject, time and time again, but little is done in reality to improve the situation.The country is staggering from one crisis to another in various parastatals, and yet we still can’t seem to get things on the right track.Various heads of several parastatals and State-owned enterprises, both past and present, have been accused of wrongdoing, only to resign timeously; and/or even be given alternate employment at the same time that they face various fraud and corruption charges.’Innocent until proven guilty’ is the excuse proffered by those employing former top officials who have engaged in questionable activities, and it is really not acceptable.When will we learn that individuals, especially at senior levels of society, need to be made responsible for their actions? This includes former and acting CEOs as well as Board members, who by now should surely know that they have a responsibility and an accountability in the positions they are paid well for.CEOs and Boards in some instances take decisions that have serious financial consequences, and yet they are never held accountable.Take for example, the most recent case of the Roads Authority, whose axing of certain top officials has been ruled ‘null and void’ by the Labour Court.The parastatal in question now faces potential costly damages claims from the former officials, money they can ill afford.Given the negative scenario that has unfolded over the past couple of years with regard to lack of good corporate governance; given also the increased emphasis on the campaign to eradicate corruption and graft from the level of President down; it is seriously depressing that we are apparently unable to make any inroads in improving the situation – either by appointing the right people to the senior posts in question or by making Board members accountable for their actions.At the Roads Contractor Company, suspended CEO Kelly Nghixulifwa resigned last week in the wake of a forensic audit at yet another beleaguered parastatal.A statement by the Board said the resignation was by ‘mutual agreement’ and so too, presumably, was the apparently generous settlement he’s been paid, that in addition to having been on paid suspension since August last year! The public cannot be blamed for the cynicism of thinking that when one CEO departs, having cost the company in question substantial amounts of money through bad governance, probably direct theft and fraud, legal costs as well as paid suspension, another one comes in his/her place, only to do it all over again! We simply cannot go on like this.There is little money for the maintenance of existing roads, let alone building of new ones, but the pillage of our scarce resources continues unchecked, with no one held liable for missing millions in a variety of different State-owned enterprises.What will it take, and when will the message be finally driven home that people in positions of responsibility have to be made accountable for their actions, whether they are CEOs or senior management or Board members who can surely be expected to face the music when they’ve been paid generously to oversee the governance of the SOEs in question? It needs to happen now.