The Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) is optimistic the Public Entities Corporate Governance Bill, which spells out substantive salary caps for heads of public entities, will be enacted by year end.
BY FIDELITY MHLANGA
OPC permanent secretary, Stuart Comberbach yesterday told the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICAZ) public sector convention that the Bill was submitted in Parliament on September 21.
“The Bill had its first reading in Parliament on September 21. Our hope is that the Bill will become law before the end of the year,” he said.
Key provisions of the Bill focus on the composition of boards and stipulated that all public entity boards must have a diversity of skills, qualifications and experience including in law, financial management, human resource management and where appropriate in one or more of the engineering disciplines.
It also regulates the appointment, performance appraisal and remuneration of heads of State enterprises, parastatals and local authorities.
Comberbach said Cabinet has already approved a code of ethics for directors and senior executive management of all public entities and local government authorities.
“When implemented, it will enquire every public entity to designate, from within its senior management, a compliance officer. That officer will be required, each year to cause to be signed by every individual to whom the code applies, written confirmation of his/her compliance therewith,” he said.
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Comberbach said the e-government programme was at the end of August providing in excess of 100 online services to the nation.
He said services that had been introduced as part of government efforts to address the ease and cost of doing business include a company registration service, corporate name search and name change service, deeds search service, processing of mining investment licences and liquor licence application services.
ICAZ president, Martin Makaya said the introduction of the Public Sector Corporate Governance Bill to govern public entities was a major step in the right direction in keeping with best practice in order to achieve economic growth.
“Companies should implement a strong focus on promoting an entity-wide culture of ethics and integrity by developing and maintaining a code of conduct. There is need to promote a high level of reporting transparency to the public, highlighting compliance with laws and regulations as well as initiatives taken by the entity,” he said.
