President Adama Barrow has warned state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that his government will not allow them “to continue collecting salaries from taxpayers’ money and not performing”, and said “difficult decisions have to be made with the SOEs we can do without”.
The president issued this warning after receiving a detailed presentation by the Commission on State-Owned Enterprises of the annual performance and financial reports of the SOEs at State House on Monday.
While thanking the commission for “a thorough presentation”, the president stressed that SOEs were set up to make profit and pay dividends to the government and not the other way around.
According to a press statement issued by the presidency, the president told the technical teams to sit over the outcome of the commission’s update and have frank discussions for decisive decisions to be taken.
“The presentation revealed that while some of the SOEs have improved their financial performances, there are a number that are still in the red with high overhead costs, leading to government intervention to pay their staff salaries,” the statement noted.
Commission Chairman Ousainou Ngum acknowledged the potential some of the SOEs have and advised the government to look at policies to harness the opportunities.
The commission, set up to provide an oversight function to the SOEs, made a comparative analysis by reviewing their financial performance, audit reports, recruitment and governance of the SOEs between 2023 and 2024.
