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Building Partnership Between Parliament And The Private Sector To Promote Good Corporate Governance In Ghana

The environment for doing business in Ghana continues to improve with strong economic growth, declining interest rates and a stable exchange rate of the local currency. Reforms have been aimed at providing a better enabling environment for private sector growth and development. Indeed Ghana has been acknowledged to be among the top ten reformers according to the 2007 World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report.

Despite these positive developments, a lot of challenges still face the Ghanaian private sector. These challenges include a poor institutional and regulatory framework, poor infrastructure, poor public service delivery, labour issues, enduring perception of corruption in the public service and environmental issues. It is to confront these challenges that Ghana and other member countries in the Africa Union put in place a comprehensive development program called the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

At the heart of the NEPAD program is the promotion of good governance in African countries. Over the last decade, the quality of governance has been highlighted as a critical variable in promoting growth and development, where poverty and human deprivation are attributed to bad governance, while rapid socio-economic growth and human development are ascribed to good governance. Good governance in a liberal democracy like Ghana’s involves the private sector working with public sector institutions to formulate policies and programmes that are implemented within a liberal and democratic system to improve the people’s welfare, reduce poverty and realize other public and societal goals.

Good governance at the national level cannot be attained without the involvement of the private sector as the private sector is noted for being the supply side of corruption to public officials. Thus, good corporate governance is very critical especially given the increasing importance of globalization and competition in world trade. Good corporate governance encourages better operational performance of firms, efficient use of resources and provides for accountability for stewardship of those resources. It can also create safeguards against corruption and mismanagement, while promoting fundamental values of a market economy in Ghana. Good governance can also reduce the risk of financial crises, which in turn can lead to growth and more employment. This eventually leads to greater economic growth as companies operating under a good corporate regime are able to generate more wealth.

Evidence has been assembled from several countries, which indicate that good corporate governance helps obtain cheaper debt, improves company operations, and that investors will pay for good governance.

Parliament has an important role to play in promoting good governance in both the corporate and the public sectors especially the crucial roles the Select Committees of Finance and Public Accounts in curbing the demand side of corruption. Indeed a pre-condition of good governance is the presence of effective democratic institutions including Parliament.

The Private Enterprise Foundation in collaboration with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung is therefore organizing a day’s seminar for members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Finance, the Public Accounts Committee and other key stakeholders to discuss how the committees’ functions can be enhanced to promote good corporate governance in Ghana.

The meeting is scheduled for Monday, 9th November, 2009 at 09:00 a.m. at Alisa Hotel.

For further information contact:

Mr. Isaac Owusu-Mensah

Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung

021-768629/0244329047

Boakye Agyare

Private Enterprise Foundation

021-508888/0244634295