Cape Town - CEOs of state-owned
industries must be held accountable by their boards, insisted Public
Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan hotly defending her budget in parliament
on Thursday.
"From now on the message must go out very clearly," Hogan told MPs in
the extended public committee of the National Assembly where the debate took
place, "that potential and incumbent CEOs cannot act as though they are
above its board. Just as a municipal manager is accountable to a council, so
is a CEO accountable to a board.
"In equal measure, boards must exercise their prerogative to hold CEOs
accountable. If these two prescripts are adhered to, we will be on the
road to restoring good corporate governance in our parastatals."
She warned that for as long as CEOs resort to mounting the equivalent of
public campaigns to secure their positions, the company would suffer.
"For as long as the position of CEO becomes a hotly-contested matter in
the public domain, other candidates who are perfectly qualified and
competent to do the job will not make themselves available for such
positions."
Turning to the current row over the World Bank loan to Eskom and the
relationship between Eskom, Hitachi Africa and the ruling political party,
Hogan told MPs that the loan from the bank is not going to fund the boilers,
from which Hitachi and the ANC will benefit.
The ANC's investment arm, Chancellor House Holdings, will not benefit from a R3.75bn World Bank loan to, among other things, build Eskom's new Medupi power station.
Hogan told journalists ahead of her budget speech in parliament on Thursday that the loan did not cover a contract to build a boiler for Medupi by Hitachi Power Africa, in which Chancellor House had a 25% share.
"I don't understand what the conflict of interest is, when there is no political party involvement, where there is no beneficiary," Hogan said.
"One of the issues that comes up continually is that the World Bank loan covers the boiler contract, which is what the Hitachi contract is for.
"The World Bank loan does not cover the Hitachi contract. It is completely separate from the boiler.
"So the World Bank is not involved in funding the boiler programme that Hitachi has contracted for."
- Sapa and I-Net Bridge