All state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have been directed by President Nana Akufo Addo to turn in their audited financial statements for the year 2023 by May 2024.

The non-compliant entities will face penalties for not following this directive.

The president emphasized his commitment to ensuring that the directive is followed when he made this announcement during the 2024 annual policy and governance forum of state-owned enterprises.

Since SOEs are expected to assist the government in carrying out its mandate, the annual policy and governance forum seeks to evaluate each company’s performance in the year under review.

At the corporate governance policy launch, President Akufo-Addo urged all state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to turn in their audited financial statements by May 15 of this year.

He warned that missing this deadline would have a detrimental effect on financing agreements with the World Bank.

The Public Finance Management Act requires certain entities to submit their audited financial statements by the end of April every year.

The goal of the president’s directive is to resolve these delays and enhance state-owned businesses’ general performance.

“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.”

According to John Boadu, Acting Director-General of the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), the new policy will improve corporate governance and lessen reliance on the state.

He gave his word that SIGA would keep a careful eye on how well SOEs were following the president’s order and would take appropriate action against those who weren’t.