PM warns heads of State boards

However, Rowley said many State enterprises have not been submitting this information.

“It is worth noting that many large and important state enterprises have not produced audited financial statements for over five years and that under 15 percent of all the stateowned enterprises submit their audited financial statements in the stipulated period, even where the law requires it.” He warned that “This will no longer be tolerated,” adding that, “The Ministry of Finance has been instructed to insist that State Enterprises comply with this obligation. There will be consequences for non-compliance.” The Prime Minister made the comment while delivering the feature address at the State Boards Corporate Governance Seminar 2017 held at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad, Wrightson Road, Port of Spain. Its theme was achieving effective corporate governance in the State sector.

Dr Rowley added that too many of the State-owned enterprises are under-performing and that some might even have deviated so far from their original purpose “that they have become the problem they were created to solve.” To fix that he said the Government will reform the way the State Enterprises are governed while acknowledging that the Government itself may have become part of the problem and it is necessary to look at how Parliament, Ministers and Ministries interact with the State Enterprises, under their charge. “We accept that there are legitimate questions, for example, as to whether some State Enterprises have sufficient autonomy; or whether the roles and responsibilities of the State Enterprise boards and the supervising ministries are sufficiently clear,” he said.

He said that despite the appropriate laws, regulations and codes, the situation calls for attitudinal changes and because of this the Minister of Finance had recently issued a stern circular to all State Enterprise management and boards to submit their financial reports, whether audited or not, in a timely fashion.