BY NED GAGAHE
The parliamentary Bills and Legislation Committee (BLC) is set to wrap up its hearings on the State-Owned Enterprise (Amendment) Bill 2024 this Friday.
According to the Parliament media unit, nearly all organizations and individuals invited to testify and present their submissions have participated, with only a few remaining to appear.
The objective of the State-Owned Enterprises (Amendment) Bill 2024 is to amend the State-Owned Enterprises Act 2007 in accordance with the Government’s endorsement of the SOE Ownership Policy 2018 and the National Gender Equality and Women’s Development Policy 2016-2020 to:
(a) to consolidate ownership monitoring responsibility for State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in the Minister of Finance alone.
(b) clarify the process through which state-owned enterprises provide Community Service Obligations: and
(c) strengthen the publication requirements of a state-owned enterprise of documents or information about the state-owned enterprise that are tabled in Parliament; and
(d) include a regulation-making power relating to the evaluation of directors of state-owned enterprises and the election of board chairpersons and deputy chairpersons
During yesterday’s hearing, several institutions, primarily state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and government ministries, presented before the committee.
Among those who spoke at the initial hearing on Tuesday were officials from the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, led by Permanent Secretary McKinnie Dentana. Additionally, Mr. Philip Kanairara, Chairman of the Law Reform Commission, and former SIWA Board Chairman Mr. Donald Marahare also contributed to the discussions.
