New boards should add value
This week, it pleased President Peter Mutharika to appoint scores of men and women as directors of boards of several parastatal organisations and State-owned enterprises. My heartfelt congratulations to the appointees.
In corporate governance, boards are critical to the success or failure of an organisation. Simply put, a board of directors oversees the activities of a corporation and provides strategic direction to the same.
Boards are usually appointed by shareholders or owners of an entity.
In the case of parastatals, the boards are appointed by the president on behalf of Malawian citizens.
If government’s Annual Economic Report is anything to go by, many of the parastatals are “sick babies” with some of them on life-support machine. Few of them make profits and pay dividends to the shareholder, government.
In the past, the weakest link in board appointments has been the appeasement policy of rewarding political party loyalists, some of them without the requisite qualifications and expertise to add value to organisations on whose boards they sat. The other day, a friend who served on one of the statutory corporation or parastatal boards, told me a story about board members who only look forward to tea and lunch breaks as well as sitting allowances without making any contribution.
However, looking at the newly hired boards, there seems to be some ray of hope as there is a good balance of technocrats, politicians (praise-singers), experience and all.
Besides, there are also several “young” men and women I have known to be professionals and achievers in their various fields of expertise. The nation surely expects the new faces to deliver and make a difference.
Personally, I congratulate the following friends and acquaintances on making it to the boards: Wilma Chalulu, Dora Banda, Edith Jiya, Habiba Osman, Phillip Madinga, Fredrick Changaya, Sam Zuze, Chimwemwe Nyirenda, Wilkins Mijiga, Harold Jiya, Sai Kaphale, Gladson Kuyeri, Wisdom Chimgwede (fresh from Nation Publications Limited newsroom!), Dr Rex Harawa, Greyson Chapita and his colleague Bob Chimkango.
In a special way, my heartfelt congratulations to James Chuma on chairing the Sports Council board and Richard Makondi who is chairperson of the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom).
In various platforms, many of you we have discussed shortfalls of our parastatals and how they can be made to deliver. We have bemoaned the tendency of doing the same thing over and over again, yet hoping to get different results. You are now in the field, share those brilliant ideas with your fellow board members to steer the corporations from underperformers to “star performers” as founding president Hastings Kamuzu Banda would say.
To those whose names are missing from the board appointments, do not despair. You can always contribute to the social and economic development of your country without necessarily holding a position in government, parastatal, diplomatic community or political party.
