Directors must also go through vigorous interviews before appointment – Justice Sao
The Chief Executive of Institute of Directors, Justice Awuku Sao is asking corporate institutions not to appoint people as directors without looking at their competence.
According to him, the way directors of institutions are appointed in the country leaves much to be desired as people just give influential positions to cronies irrespective of qualifications.
“Directorship is a competence-based profession, don’t just put anybody there, he will go and mess you up,” Justice Sao said on TV3 News360 on Wednesday.
He finds it worrying, the situation where managers are more experienced and competent than directors whom they take instructions from.
He was commenting on the takeover of UT Bank, Capital Bank and lately the uniBank by Bank of Ghana.
In his assessment, the challenges the banking sector is going through paint a vivid picture of what corporate governance in Ghana has been reduced to.
“People go through vigorous interviews to get employment but when it comes to directorship, it’s a different ball game all together,” he observed.
“You meet a friend on the street and you said I have a company can you join me to become a director, and he says yes. If you take the public sector, government is looking for party faithfuls to put them on boards so as long as they haven’t got them, you find companies working without boards.”
The CEO of Institute of Directors Ghana said it is time the country got corporate governance right, “otherwise all that we are doing we are wasting our time”.
Justice Sao made reference to a 2017 survey released by ACCA [Association of Chartered Certified Accountants] and KPMG on corporate governance and Ghana was ranked 12 out of 15 African countries.
“It tells you that straight away the corporate governance practices in the nation are quite low even within the continent. If you take to the world stage then we are nowhere near,” he analysed.
In the wake of companies collapsing, he charged corporate Ghana to show commitment that it wants to get out of the situation by putting in vigorous measures in appointing directors.
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