Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has challenged the State Interests and Governance Authority’s (SIGA) claim that it recorded the highest proportion of audited financial statements from state-owned entities in its latest report.

According to him, SIGA’s claim that the proportion of entities submitting audited accounts was the highest ever is inaccurate, arguing that the figure recorded in 2021 was actually higher.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, September 5, Mr Simons said SIGA reported that about 66% of the entities it oversees submitted audited accounts for the latest reporting period.

He, however, noted that the proportion was 68% in 2021.

“And then it [SIGA] made a claim that, we made a big improvement this year because this is the year we had the highest proportion of audited statements.

“And then we actually went to check, and it isn’t correct. Because if you look at 2021, we had a higher proportion, which is 68% versus the 66% that was recorded this year. So it’s just not true,” he said.

Mr Simons said the discrepancy forms part of several issues he has identified in SIGA’s 2025 State Ownership Report, which the authority has presented as evidence of a significant turnaround in the performance of state-owned enterprises.

He also questioned the report’s presentation of profitability, arguing that the aggregate figures obscure the performance of individual entities.

According to him, the number of profitable entities declined from 35 in the previous year to 34 in the latest reporting period.

“When it comes to the issue around even profitability, the truth of the matter is that there was a drop in the number of entities that were profitable this year versus last year by one company, right? It was 35 this year, last year, to 34 this year.”

“So even if you just look at the broad span of the entities we are most concerned about, the SOEs, fewer of them made profit this year than last year, which is not noted because we are looking at aggregates.”

Mr Simons further raised concerns about SIGA’s methodology for combining the financial results of various state-owned entities.

He argued that the report appears to treat the figures as though they were derived from group consolidation, although, in his view, the process is primarily an aggregation exercise.

He said this distinction is important because consolidation comes with specific accounting requirements, including clear disclosure of the basis of preparation and accounting policies.

“They’re almost reported as if it’s group consolidation, but they’re not following the rules on group consolidation. Primarily it’s an aggregation exercise.”

He questioned the use of indicators such as group profit, group loss and current ratio when the underlying methodology does not, in his assessment, fully comply with the requirements associated with consolidated financial reporting.

“If you are doing something that looks as if you are consolidating, so that it can generate group profit, it can generate group loss, it can generate current ratio, these kind of things, then require you to tell us the basis of preparation, accounting policies, etc.”

Mr Simons also criticised what he described as SIGA’s selective reference to international accounting standards.

“It mentions IPSAS, the International Public Sector Accounting Standards. It mentions IFRS, but it doesn’t engage the practices that you require if you are actually using those things.”