The Bureau of State Enterprises, headed by Arthur Massaquoi, which is responsible for providing oversight of statutory agency of the government, has promised to leave no stone unturned.
It was established in the mid-80s with the core statutory functions of providing oversight of the state enterprise sector, providing professional advice to the government concerning SOES, regulating SOES, and providing strategic leadership for the sector.
“After our civil war, however, the BSE became operationally invisible in rhetoric governance structure of the country until 2021 when it was restored to its statutory role,” Director Massaquoi said.
However, since the partial restoration from its operational dormancy, the BSE has had considerable challenges in establishing itself as an influential oversight and regulatory body over SOEs due to the lack of the required technical capacity and political will. This has led to the limited coverage of the state enterprise sector and the difficulties of gathering timely reports from SOEs. Despite these difficulties, the BSE continues to make concerted effort to execute its statutory mandate to ensure an efficient and effective state enterprise sector, according to Massaquoi.
Meanwhile, Director Massaquoi said the SOE sector has the potential to contribute hugely to the national growth and development of Liberia if managed effectively and efficiently, as its long-term goal is to optimize the contributions of the SOE sector to the national development agenda of Liberia through strong revenue mobilization and revenue management across the sector, and improve accountability and transparency across the sector and expanding coverage to all SOEs is key to achieving this feat.
According to him, it can only be achieved by strengthening the governance and regulatory frameworks that will improve oversight of the sector, expand the coverage of the sector, ensure accountability and transparency of SOEs, and foster the efficient delivery of needed goods and services to the Liberia population. He added that the management team of the bureau continues to be engaged with SOES on critical national development issues to ensure that they deliver on their mandates in a transparent and accountable manner in an ardent effort to mitigate fiscal risks.
He sounded a rescue call saying that support of the World Bank and other multilateral partners is highly needed to strengthen the governance and oversight of the sector, which will ensure disclosure and accountability across the sector—as a means of curbing wastes and leakages in the SOE sector.
He said, “Thanks to His Excellency Ambassador Joseph Nyuma Boakai for the political will extended the bureau and our partners as we all strive to ensuring transparency and accountability in the sector.”