–Outlines Key Objectives For 2025
The Director General of the Bureau of State Enterprises (BSE), Arthur Siaka Massaquoi Sr., has outlined his entity’s achievements since he took over the entity, including key objectives for 2025, as well as the challenges the entity faced during the period under review.
DG Massaquoi’s updates were contained in a briefing note to His Excellency President Joseph Nyuma Boakai on the state of affairs of the SOE sector.
The briefing note, according to DG Massaquoi, is intended to provide an update to President Boakai about the Bureau of State Enterprises’ accomplishments over the last nine months, the challenges at the entity, as well as the state of affairs of the SOE sector.
It can be recalled that when DG Massaquoi and team were appointed in 2024, they flagged out that the BSE inherited an SOE sector characterized by poor management, mismanagement, inefficiency, ineffective service delivery, lack of accountability and transparency, and weak oversight mechanisms, which resulted in the subpar performance of SOEs, lack of public trust in SOEs, the SOEs’ low support of the national budget, and high fiscal burden to the national budget.
However, in an effort to resolve these issues, DG Massaquoi has reported that they have developed a 4-year reform strategy and action plan for the sector, which prescribe the roadmap to strengthening the oversight mechanisms and achieving efficiency and effectiveness in the management and operations of SOEs. He said the 4-year reform strategy also outlined the key reform goals that, when achieved, will strengthen the oversight and governance of SOEs.
Key reform goals outlined by DG Massaquoi’s briefing note include strengthening the legal and regulatory framework for the SOE governance; development of governance and operational policies for SOEs; and improving the monitoring and accountability mechanisms for the sector.
According to the notes, the BSE began the implementation of the reform during the last two quarters of 2024. It was however pointed out that the bureau was confronted with resource challenges that slowed its pace in achieving a significant mark over the last six months. Howbeit, the bureau still achieved several of its goals, including drafting a document for the transitioning the BSE Decree to an Act; developing SOE regulations and governance and operational policies; and developing a remuneration policy for the SOE Sector.
Outlining their key objectives for 2025, DG Massaquoi mentioned that BSE looks forward to achieving more in its reform initiative during the current year, noting that the bureau’s annual agenda for 2025 includes, but is not limited to, concluding the transition of the BSE Decree to an Act, SOE regulations and the corporate governance and operational policies for SOEs; digitizing the collection and reporting of SOEs’ information; developing a website for the BSE to make SOEs’ information more accessible to the public; expanding the coverage of SOEs to 23 or more entities; and improving the quality of SOEs’ financial statements.
But amidst the on-going governance reform of the SOE sector, DG Massaquoi pointed out that the BSE is still challenged in regard to the compliance of SOEs in terms of reporting to the BSE on their operations and performance, an issue he attributed to the existing weak legal and regulatory frameworks.
“Therefore, while we are in the process of crafting the required regulatory and governance policies, the BSE needs more political support to ensure accountability from SOEs and more responsible governance and management of SOEs. Such political support will ensure that SOEs remain in check and do not operate in silos as it has been over the years,” DG Massaquoi indicated in his briefing notes to President Boakai.