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Cape Town - Arms manufacturer Denel is the best governed
state-owned enterprise (SOE), the Centre for Corporate Governance said on
Thursday.
This was followed by Transnet, Telkom [JSE:TKG], the SA Post
Office, and the Development Bank of SA, project leader and senior research
fellow Lynn McGregor told reporters in Cape Town.
The findings were listed in a report entitled "Rating
Governance in State-Owned Enterprises", which used publically available
information to assess how the entities were run.
The focus of the research had largely been on transparency,
accountability, how the boards functioned, their relationship with
shareholders, and social and environmental performance.
McGregor said the findings would come as a surprise to some.
"We are aware that if you look at the news, all the top
five are actually in trouble."
The project leader was asked who the five worst performing
SOEs were.
A laughing McGregor said the focus of the project was not to
"name and shame".
"It is very helpful to know what we are doing right.
Our focus is: How can performance of SOEs be improved?"
The centre conceded, however, that much still needed to be
improved in comparison to the private sector.
"Apart from social aspects where SOEs do better than
the private sector, on the whole SOEs underperform in relation."
The report noted that research did not cover negative media
coverage and did not verify the accuracy of information disclosed in public
documents.
The centre warned that a high score according to the SOE matrix was not an endorsement of all government practices of an entity.
