Addressing a workshop on enhancing board effectiveness and performance management of parastatals and State enterprises organised by the Office of the President and Cabinet, Finance Minister Ignatius Chombo hinted that parastatals and State enterprises might not receive bonuses.
Chombo said that bonuses must be performance based and that Treasury was no longer in a position to continue bailing out underperforming public entities or those that have outlived their usefulness. He revealed that 93 of Government enterprises and parastatals raked up $270 million in losses in 2016 while their contribution to gross domestic product has plummeted to 2 percent from 40. Considering that most of the Government enterprises and parastatals are loss making employees might forgo bonuses if Chombo’s strategy is implemented. Said Chombo:
Remuneration has to be based on performance and assessed on the individual and the entity. Bonuses, if they are to be paid at all, must only be awarded on the basis of annual performance assessments against agreed performance targets and only after annual audited financial assessments confirm a satisfactory overall entity performance. Nothing can justify this squandering of (public) funds; my ministry will be acting to ensure recovery of such unjustified payments and all those who benefited there from. These are public funds and use thereof must be fully justified and must at all times be accurately and transparently accounted for.
More: Herald