Boards absence rapped

governance issues. In her report tabled before Parliament last week on State entities, Mrs Chiri said absence of boards on parastatals shortchanged tax-payers who are key stakeholders.

“My audit revealed that some parastatals were still operating with poorly constituted boards or without boards. This created a policy vacuum at the top leaving those below to act without proper guidance. In some cases the boards were unbalanced due to lack of financial expertise and operated without Audit Committees thereby compromising their oversight role. The Corporate Governance Framework for State Enterprises and Parastatals requires the board to have appropriate expertise and skills mix,” said Mrs Chiri. It was also observed that there were long delays in the appointment of boards and chief executive officers following the expiry of their respective terms.

“I observed that the control environment was weak in some parastatals as evidenced by lack of segregation of duties, delays in banking, bank reconciliations not being performed, fixed assets registers not up to date. Some parastatals did not have a risk management policy.”