State-owned enterprises (SOEs) desirous of participating in the Ghana Club 100-2009 Awards must meet the benchmarks set by the Ghana Investments Promotion Centre (GIPC). Mr Robert Ahomka-Lindsay, Chief Executive Officer of the GIPC, made this known to the GNA on Friday at the launch of this year’s GC100 Awards scheduled for May 29. He said companies competing for awards must be in good standing with statutory authorities such as Internal Revenue Service, Value Added Tax, and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust, and must file the most recent three-year audited accounts spanning 2006, 2007, and 2008. No special consideration would be given to SOEs that do not meet these criteria, he emphasized. The main criteria would, however, be based on company size, growth and profitability with turnover, growth in turnover and return on equity of 25 per cent, 40 per cent and 35 per cent respectively. He said the new criteria set for the awards, which were arrived at through stakeholders’ inputs fell in line with the objectives of the GC100. These are to serve as the basis for evaluating the corporate and financial performance of Ghana’s enterprises, encourage good corporate governance particularly transparency, disclosure and accountability of Ghanaian enterprises and to develop a uniform basis for assessing corporate social responsibility of Ghanaian enterprises. Others are to develop an open information culture within the corporate sector and to reward those industries and activities targeted for the nation’s development goals. The 100 Awards will cover all GIPC’s key sectors such as agriculture and agri-business; financial services; information and communication technology; infrastructure; petroleum and mining; manufacturing; tourism; education and health. Mr Ahomka-Lindsay said this year’s awards followed extensive consultations with key stakeholders to upgrade qualifying criteria “to reflect our development needs and to celebrate the creation of new businesses” Winners would be recognized for their sector focus, actual growth, profitability, and return on equity and potential. “The GC100 is also working with the Ghana Business Code to incorporate key elements of the code to provide a value based analysis of companies, corporate culture, rather than a simple review of how much money each company may have spent on corporate social responsibility.” Mr Ahomka-Lindsay said special awards would also be presented to entrepreneurs and outstanding performers in the small and medium scale enterprises. He mentioned other special awards under consideration as the GC100 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year; GC100 2009 Most Respected Company; GC100 2009 Award for Best Training and Development; GC100 2009 Best Listed Company on Ghana Stock Exchange; and GC100 2009 Award for CSR. Others were GC100 2009 Award for Best Emerging Company – Petroleum; GC100 2009 Award for Best Customer Service; GC100 2009 Award for Best Labour Relations; GC100 2009 Award for Best in Store Design; and GC100 2009 Award for Best Product Design. The 100 awards based on the new criteria would be presented at a Gala at the Ghana Investment Forum 2009. The theme for this year’s events is “Celebrating Ghana’s Business Leaders”. Source: GNA