Justice Sao: Prune Powers Of Chief Executive Officers

Mr. Justice Awuku Sao, Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Directors-Ghana has stressed the need for corporate organisations to separate the powers of chief executives from Chairmen of the board of directors. He said the separation of powers would ensure that people performing any of the two roles did not exercise unfettered powers. Mr. Justice Sao was speaking at a seminar to develop the capacity of pro-poor private sector led growth to enhance corporate governance in Accra. The three-day seminar organised by the Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF) in collaboration with the Institute of Directors-Ghana is also aimed at improving the competence of directors of private companies to ensure good governance among private sectors institutions. Mr. Justice Sao said the selection of corporate directors should not be based on loyalty but rather on competence so that directors could add value to the business activity. He said corporate failures attributed mainly to excessive abuse of executive powers and lack of effective board that had considerable interest in corporate governance. Mr. Justice Sao said investors and other stakeholders who want to invest in a company were now critical of corporate governance and performance before they entrusted their monies to heads of the companies to create value for them. He said the donor communities had also placed premium on good corporate governance and regarded it as one of the conditions to be met before they extend assistance. Mr. Justice Sao said governments were insisting on stringent regulations to govern companies. He said good corporate governance promoted efficient use of scarce resource by governments to provide satisfactory development to the people. Mr. Justice Sao called for transparency among business leaders to be able come out with accurate and timely disclosure of information relating to economic and other activities of the companies. Mr. John Asante, Project Assistant, PEF said the seminar jointly sponsored by the Japanese Government and United Nations Development Programme was geared towards helping Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Ghana to build their capacities. He said the training programme would focus on equipping managers of small businesses in the informal sector to be able to promote good governance.