Editorial: Mr President, Non-Performing Heads OfSOEs Must Be Sacked!

President John Dramani Mahama, according to myjoyonline.com, has declared that the era of mediocrity and financial mismanagement in State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) must come to an end. He has consequently warned that loss-making SOEs will no longer be tolerated and will either be merged, privatised or closed.

Speaking at a meeting with CEOs of specified entities under the State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA) on Thursday, March 13, 2025 President Mahama called for a complete reset of SOEs to drive their transformation.“I will assess you based on your performance. If you do not align with the pace of the reset agenda, you may be asked to step aside. If that adds to the horror movie, so be it,” he stated, warning that “the era of impunity, mediocrity and financial recklessness must end today.”

It is important to stress that a few days ago, the minister for Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson raised similar concern about the performances of the SOEs whilst presenting this year’s budget to parliament. According to Ato Forson, some of the SOEs are struggling financially and have failed to achieve profitability.

It is an undeniable fact that both President Mahama and his Finance Minister have hit the nail right on the head, as some of these SOEs are indeed performing poorly. These businesses were established not only to create employment,but also raise revenues to support government projects. Unfortunately, some of them are failing to perform, either due to lack of capital injection or poor managerial issues.

One of them, we dare say, is the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), which has been in existence for years, but failing to properly perform its role in stimulating the growth of the national economy. Ghana has struck oil in commercial quantities, but despite the existence of TOR, we are still importing finished petroleum products at a huge cost to the state.

We must, however, admit that TOR problems are not related to perceived poor management alone, but lack of capital investment by past the governments. There is a perception out there that all the governments Ghana had had since 1992 failed to properly equip TOR because a properly functioning state owned refinery will kill their private businesses.

President Mahama, who is now raising concerns about the performances of the SOEs, which we agree with him, should prove to Ghanaians that this negative perception has no foundation and that he, as president, is ready to ensure that TOR has been revived. As the situation stands now, the state is paying huge sums of money in the form of emoluments to people purporting to be running TOR, when Ghanaians are not deriving maximum benefits from their operations.

Apart from TOR, there are other SOEs we consider as cash cow, yet their respective heads, despite the huge salaries they are drawing every month, are not working to improve upon the fortunes of these institutions. Such heads, in our candid opinion, must be sacked without any considerationas the president himself is threatening to do.

We also suggest to President Mahama to consider reshuffling heads of these SOEs as he is surely going to do with his ministers. This will put all these appointees on their toes and work hard to raise funds that would support government projects. Interestingly, ‘reset’ is one of the pillars that has brought the president back to power. It is, therefore, our hope that he would introduce this policy of reshuffling the heads of the SOEs as we are suggesting, in the best interest of the nation.

 

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