President Akufo-Addo has mandated all state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to present their audited financial statements for the year 2023 by May 2024, warning of sanctions for non-compliance.

The president issued this directive during the 2024 annual policy and governance forum of state-owned enterprises, affirming his commitment to ensuring strict adherence to the requirement.

This forum serves to assess the performance of all SOEs for the year, as they play a vital role in supporting the government's mandate.

Addressing the launch of a policy on corporate governance, President Akufo-Addo urged all SOEs to meet the May 15 deadline for submitting their audited accounts.

He emphasized that failure to meet this deadline could negatively affect financing arrangements with the World Bank.

Under the Public Finance Management Act, specified entities are required to submit audited financial statements by the end of April each year.

The president's directive aims to tackle delays in submission and enhance the overall performance of SOEs.

Acting Director-General of the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), John Boadu, believes the new policy will improve corporate governance and reduce reliance on the government.

SIGA pledges to closely monitor SOEs' compliance with the directive and take appropriate action against those failing to meet the deadline.

“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.”