SOE boards should have firm standards for corporate governance: Alweendo

WINDHOEK, 08 DEC  – Minister of Mines and Energy, Tom Alweendo has called upon boards of State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) to have clear and firm standards for corporate governance.
“The boards need to put in place measures and control management in order to strengthen governance in their companies,” he said.

Alweendo was speaking at the official inauguration of the new Namib Desert Diamonds (Namdia) offices in Windhoek on Friday.

He expressed concern about the apparent crisis in confidence in SOEs as a result of the public reading about their inefficiencies, which leads to a loss in assurance in the integrity of the SOEs.

“It is therefore important for the boards and managements of SOEs to do everything in their power to demonstrate a strong commitment to the enforcement of clear and firm corporate governance,” he stated.
Alweendo said standards of corporate governance must require boards of directors and management to execute their responsibilities in the best interest of the shareholder and to act with both confidence and integrity.

“Only people who are knowledgeable about the nature of the business of the particular company and propriety are considered for appointment on boards of SOEs and as a shareholder we (government) passed the new SOE Act to assist.”

The amended SOE Act of 2006 makes provision for the restructuring of parastatals, monitoring of their performance and incidental matters and allows the ministry to become more focused and specialised, with an appropriate structure and skill to be a professional active shareholder representative for the State.
“The new SOE Act ensures that Government has standards on how we manage State-owned companies,” Alweendo said.

Namdia Board Chairperson Shakespeare Masiza during the event explained that the company initially operated from a small office in a local mall.

The new offices are situated at the corner of Sam Nujoma Drive and Dr Kwame Nkrumah Street.
Namdia was established in line with the signing of a marketing and sales agreement by the Government and the De Beers Group, concluding negotiations which dated back to 2014.- NAMPA