By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The National Commission for Privatization (NCP) has said they will need huge capital from government to improve the services of some parastatals. The Chairman of the commission, Retired Colonel Alhaji Fanday Turay said this can only be avoided if parastatals change the way they operate.
Chairman Turay said this way parastatals would be able to increase their ‘growth potential’ thereby contributing more revenue to government. He was speaking at the conclusion of a tour of different public enterprises following his appointment to the office.
“I will require financial resources from government to overhaul and streamline their operations if they should revert to profitability. They would have to be privatized in order to be among other things, remove contingent liability on government,” Turay said.
The tour accorded the new NCP chair the opportunity to learn about the operations and strategic plans of the institutions and how they are expected to be translated into key performance benchmarks for effective service delivery.
Turay said there is need for private investment into these parastatals so that they can improve their services and make profit on behalf of the government. He added that to fix the problems associated with these institutions, they will need private investment. But there are concerns bordering around the state interest in these privatization deals. Turay said they can still attract private investment without necessarily compromising the state’s interest.
"It is time we change the narrative in order to maximize our growth potentials. The NCP is ever more committed to attract viable private capital investment into our Public Enterprises without compromising the interest of the state.”
Currently the NCP oversees eight institutions which include the Guma Valley Water Company, the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank and Rokel Commercial Bank.
Despite the call for private investment, the Chairman said he was impressed by how some of the institutions have done so far. He said his vision for the commission is about aligning their priorities with the government’s.
“Our vision on enterprise reforms and the Commission’s strategic framework has been realigned with government’s approach to economic development and consequently adaptive to the framework established under the “New Direction”,” he said.
The NCP was established in 2002 to reform, restructure and privatize public enterprises slated under the First Schedule of the NCP Act No.12 of 2002.
Published in print on 4 July 2019
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