Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has cautioned State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) who default to present their audited financial account reports will be sanctioned.

Speaking at the maiden edition of the Public Enterprises League Table (PELT) Awards, Dr Bawumia said the move is to help government generate beneficial economic and social outcomes, hence, the decision to closely monitor these SOEs.

"I would like to also state that relative to timely financial reporting, the honeymoon is long over and severe sanctions will follow from now onwards for those who fail to meet required deadlines as specified in the law.

“The state must generate beneficial economic and social outcomes from its investments in these entities, and the efforts made to improve reporting. The use of digital technology should make reporting much easier and seamless going forward,” he said on Thursday.

While acknowledging the significant role SOEs play in the economy, the Vice President was supportive of the new award scheme that was introduced by the Public and Enterprise Ministry.

In his view, the PELT Awards will help in projecting SOEs who are performing for the improvement of the country.

"I wholeheartedly support the innovation of the Public Enterprises League Table (PELT) because it provides a pathway for recognising well-performing boards, CEOs and their management.

“It is my wish that the Public Enterprises League Table the gold standard for recognizing Specified Entities whose responsiveness and performance would be open for all to see," he noted.

On his part, the Minister for Public Enterprises, Joseph Cudjoe said the newly introduced, award scheme is to generate healthy competition amongst SOEs in the country.

According to him, the aim is to change the 65-year-old challenge of high indebtedness, loss-making, non-performance and collapse of state entities.

So the PELT Awards, Mr Cudjoe was hopeful of building resilient entities that can contribute to the growth of the country.

“The awards aspect of the PELT as we are going to witness here is to provide non-pecuniary incentives for improved performance and to recognize the CEOs/MDs/DGs and Boards of the good performing entities. Unlike a typical soccer league table, when an entity is last on this league table, it does not mean it is going on relegation but needs more attention including training and capacity building and possibly further capitalization by the shareholder.

“On the other hand, when an entity is first, it means to a large extent it is doing the right thing and must be encouraged to do more. This is why the PELT must be understood as a management by exception tool. Ladies and gentlemen, I love competition because competition is fair and brings out the best in us. Yes, the person who comes first comes under pressure to sustain performance and the person who comes last comes equally comes under pressure to improve performance. This how fair, the PELT is, so enjoy the competition,” he noted.

Giving further explanation on the scheme, he said, “PELT as a tool to engender competition will rank the performance of entities in respect of their attainment of targets set and agreed in the annual performance contract they signed with SIGA. It is designed to be a technical ranking system on several dimensions ranging from financials, efficiency and productivity, management improvement and innovation.”

Meanwhile, at the end of the presentation, the Tema Development Company Limited (TDC) was crowned the overall Specified Entity of the Year.

Others include; Most Compliant SOE - Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA), Most Innovative Regulator - Gaming Commission of Ghana, Most Innovative SOE - Volta River Authority, Regulator of The Year - DVLA and State-Owned Enterprise of The Year - Tema Development Company Limited (TDC).

The event which was organized by the Ministry of Public Enterprises in collaboration with State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) and the Ministry of Finance was not only aimed at rewarding hardworking entities in the country but also to motivate others to work harder.