Business model or the people: Why are Public Enterprises failing?
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The National Development Bank (NDB) has joined the bandwagon of the underperforming in retrenching its staff, with scores of the bank staff, save the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) having been told that no one is guaranteed survival of the imminent chop from the country oldest parastatal. Staff Writer ALFRED MASOKOLA examines underlying factors that have rendered State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) inefficient, unprofitable and unsustainable.
State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), Public Enterprises or simply parastatals as it is the case here, are government owned or controlled institutions which were created with a clear mandate to engage in commercial activities. According to a report titled; “State-Owned Enterprises Catalysts for public value creation?” published by international auditing firm, PCW, public enterprises have been rising in influence in the global economy over the past decade.
For instance, the proportion of SOEs among the Fortune Global 500 has grown from 9 percent in 2005 to 23 percent in 2014, including a greater presence in the top rankings. China has been a model of what influence public enterprises can have in the economy, with corporation like Sinopec Group, China National Petroleum and State Grid having consistently made the top ten of Fortune 500.
SOEs have become tools for some countries to better position themselves for the future in the global economy given increased global competition for finance, talent, and resources. However, in Botswana, parastatals have become a burden in the economy in recent years, with government have to come to rescue on several occasions to bail them out. Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), National Development Bank (NDB), Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) and Air Botswana being some of the institutions that have knocked on doors of government seeking financial rescue.
Three of the above-mentioned institutions are monopolies, which even complicates matters on whether the problem with public enterprises their business models or the talent leading them. The BMC, WUC and Botswana BPC are among vital public enterprises that have been experiencing perennial losses for the past decade. In 2006, WUC, BMC and BPC made a combined net profit of P371.9 million while, in the latest budget speech, Finance Minister, Kenneth Matambo indicated that the three entities recorded a worrisome combined loss of P507. 5 million.
Duncan Majinda, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Botswana Accountancy Oversight Authority (BAOA), an institution with mandate to audit public enterprises tried to offer diagnosis on the matter. “A new area in our mandate was recently introduced in corporate governance and financial reporting monitoring. The initial results reflect that private and listed companies, and banks perform significantly better than state-owned enterprises,” Majinda told WeekendPost recently.
“In order to explain the reasons for differential performance, it is appropriate to use an analogy. The engine of a car is the most important component of the car without which it cannot operate. By the same token, in an organisation, the Board and executive management is the engine of the entity. Poorly constituted boards without the requisite balance of knowledge, skills and expertise are the main problems of poorly performing entities.”
Majinda contended that private and listed companies have very strong boards constituted along best international practice through corporate governance codes like King III and IV. “Parastatals on the other hand are dominated by pre-determines ex-officio appointments so that if there is such a balance, it is by coincidence rather than design. Committees such as renumeration, Nomination, Risk are not common with parastatals,” he argued.
Majinda however said there is obvious need to conscious of the nature of the mandates of these different entities as some are commercially oriented while others are geared towards providing a public good or service where commercial initiatives are constrained through, for example, controlled prices and levies. “That notwithstanding, good corporate governance can be applied right across industries and sectors, public or private, profit making or non-profit making, to ensure efficiency, effectiveness and economy in doing business. Good strong boards produce good and robust strategies that result in good strategic decisions,” he said.
Following a litany of calls from various quarters, including legislators and the business community over the need to merge some ministries in a bid to improve efficiency and profitability, Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry have given in. “It has been observed that the mandates of some of the parastatals are converging resulting in some overlaps and duplications,” Minister of Trade, Bogolo Kenewendo, indicate in her first media briefing as minister.
“A rationalisation exercise is ongoing in that regard, and the exercise will go a long way in eliminating duplication of efforts across the ministry’s parastatals where existent, culminating in improved service quality.” While a backbencher, Kenewendo had made her believes known that a number of parastatals do have overlapping mandates therefore requiring a rationalisation that would produce efficiency.
With the rationalisation process likely to affect mostly the funding institutions under the supervision of trade ministry such as Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA), Botswana Development Corporation (BDC), Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) and possibly NDB, CEDA CEO, Thabo Thamane has cautioned government about the possibility of misdiagnosing the problem bedevilling public enterprises.
“I know what CEDA does, I have been here for the past 15 years; I know what LEA does, and I know what other financiers do. What is very critical is that we must be every carefully when making this analysis of merging public enterprises because their mandates were very specific,” he warned.
“It is one thing as for an institution that is not performing as per its mandate. If it does not perform, you do not just say you merge it. You basically say; why is it not performing? Is it the people or is it the mandate? So that is the starting point; If it is the people, you then put the right people so that they can make it perform; if it is the mandate, then review the mandate and then merge it with other institutions.”
Thamane contended that the last thing that government needs is to create a monster of an institution, because the bigger the institution, the bigger the process. “We welcome this idea of a possible review of the institutions, and where possible some will be merged. If they decide CEDA merges with other institution, I will take it, “he said.
BUSINESS MODEL FAILER: NDB CASE
NDB has found the going tough in recent years, with the bank riddled with perennial losses amid a funding model that has been ruled out as not sustainable. This year, the bank has found itself in dire crisis as it had only P10 million to disburse for loans. The situation has forced the bank to retrench employees, with P31 million budgeted for the exercise. In May this year, the bank’s executives approached Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises and Statutory Bodies to lobby for recaptialisation.
WeekendPost has established that NDB’s problems and bottlenecks are deeper than simply the matter of recapitalisation. The structure and sources of funding mean that they have an unfavourable cost structure which paralyses their competitiveness. “It is almost a chicken and eggs situation that for them to lower their cost of funding, they need to be deposit taking, that is through banking license, but it appears they need to capitalise a bit more to prepare for qualification as a deposit taking institution,” the committee member observed.
NDB has been sourcing its funds from BIFM Capital, Barclays Bank and First National Bank Botswana (FNBB) at an interest rate of 8.5 percent, and 9.5 percent for BIFM capital. This, according to the bank, is brought about by the verity that government has stopped issuing bonds to the bank, forcing it to find alternative funding avenues. It has merged that most of committee members are sympathetic to NDB and are determined to make a case in their favour before parliament. Parliament has the authority to authorise government spending and has in the past approved bailing out of several public enterprises which were struggling financially.
Though NDB was at one point making profit, it does not get subvention from government on annual basis despite the bank being a development bank. In 2016, NDB requested government to inject capital amounting to about P1 billion in the next three years in order to transform the bank and prepare it for commercialisation. Last year, it was offered P400 million by government, P100 million of it being a grant while the remaining P300 million was a loan.
As per Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, Lorato Morapedi’s statement before the parliamentary committee on Statutory Bodies and Enterprises in 2016, NDB wanted government to inject P400 million in the next financial year [2017], followed by two government guaranteed loans of P165 million and P250 million in subsequent years.
NDB is one of the quasi-government institutions that have been put up for privatisation, with Botswana Telecommunication Corporation (BTC) having successfully gone through the process. It is expected that, like the BTC, government will retain 51 percent shareholding in the company, while 5 percent is offered to employees, with the rest of the shareholding being offered to the public.
However, there has been debate both within and outside NDB with regard to whether the bank is in a state to be commercialised. Some school of thought is that in its current state, government would be either giving it away or nobody will show interest in its stock, hence the need to recapitalise the bank.
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ENVIRONMENT ISSUES: Masisi asks Virginia for help
President Mokgweetsi Masisi says the issue of sustainable natural resources management has always been an important part of Botswana’s national development agenda.
Masisi was speaking this week on the occasion of a public lecture at Virginia Polytechnic, under theme, “Merging Conservation, Democracy and Sustainable Development in Botswana.”
Botswana, according to Masisi, holds the view that the environment is fragile and as such, must be managed and given the utmost protection to enable the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“It is necessary that we engage one another in the interchange of ideas, perspectives, visualizations of social futures, and considerations of possible strategies and courses of action for sustainable development,” said Masisi.
On the other hand, dialogue, in the form of rigorous democratic discourse among stakeholders presents another basis for reconfiguring how people act on their environments, with a view to conserving its resources that “we require to meet our socio-economic development needs on a sustainable basis,” Masisi told attendees at the public lecture.
He said government has a keen interest in understanding the epidemiology and ecology of diseases of both domestic and wild animals. “It is our national interest to forestall the dire consequences of animal diseases on our communities livelihoods.”
President Masisi hoped that both Botswana and Virginia could help each other in curbing contagious diseases of wildlife.
“We believe that Virginia Tech can reasonably share their experiences, research insights and advances in veterinary sciences and medicines, to help us build capacity for knowledge creation and improve efforts of managing and containing contagious diseases of wildlife. The ground is fertile for entering into such a mutually beneficial partnership.”
When explaining environmental issues further, Masisi said efforts of conservation and sustainable development might at times be hampered by the emergence and recurrence of diseases when pathogens mutate and take host of more than one species.
“Water pollution also kills aquatic life, such as fish, which is one of humanity’s much deserved sources of food. In this regard, One Health Approach imposes ecological responsibility upon all of us to care for the environment and the bio-diversity therein.”
He said the production and use of animal vaccines is an important space and tool for conservation, particularly to deal with trans-border animal diseases.
“In Botswana, our 43-year-old national premier pharmaceutical institution called Botswana Vaccine Institute has played its role well. Through its successful production of highly efficacious Foot and Mouth vaccines, the country is able to contain this disease as well as supply vaccines to other countries in the sub-region.:
He has however declared that there is need for more help, saying “We need more capacitation to deal with and contain other types of microbial that affect both animals and human health.”
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Masisi saddened by deaths of elephant attacks
President Mokgweetsi Masisi has expressed a strong worry over elephants killing people in Botswana. When speaking in Virginia this week, Masisi said it is unfortunate that Batswana have paid a price with their own blood through being attacked by elephants.
“Communities also suffer unimaginable economic losses yearly when their crops are eaten by the elephants. In spite of such incidents of human-elephant conflict, our people embrace living together with the animals. They fully understand wildlife conservation and its economic benefits in tourism.”
In 2018, Nthobogang Samokwase’s father was attacked by an elephant when travelling from the fields, where he stayed during the cropping season.
It was reported that the man couldn’t run because of his age. He was found trampled by the elephant and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
In the same year, in Maun, a 57-year-old British woman was attacked by an elephant at Boro and died upon arrival at the hospital. The woman was with her Motswana partner, and were walking dogs in the evening.
Last month, a Durban woman named Carly Marshall survived an elephant attack while on holiday in the bush in Botswana. She was stabbed by one of the elephant’s tucks through the chest and was left with bruises. Marshall also suffered several fractured ribs from the ordeal.
President Masisi Botswana has the largest population of African elephants in the world, totaling more than 130 000. “This has been possible due to progressive conservation policies, partnerships with the communities, and investment in wildlife management programmes.”
In order to benefit further from wildlife, Masisi indicated that government has re-introduced controlled hunting in 2019 after a four-year pause. “The re-introduction of hunting was done in an open, transparent and democratic way, giving the communities an opportunity to air their views. The funds from the sale of hunting quota goes towards community development and elephant conservation.”
He stressed that for conservation to succeed, the local people must be involved and derive benefits from the natural resources within their localities.
“There must be open and transparent consultations which involve all sectors of the society. It is against this backdrop that as a country, we lead the continent on merging conservation, democracy and sustainable development.”
Masisi stated that Botswana is open to collaborative opportunities, “particularly with identifiable partners such as Virginia Tech, in other essential areas such as conservation, and the study of the interplay among the ecology of diseases of wild animals and plants, and their effects on human health and socio-economic development.”
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Gov’t commit to injecting more funds in fighting HIV
Minister for State President Kabo Morwaeng says government will continue to make resources available in terms of financial allocations and human capital to ensure that Botswana achieves the ideal of eradicating HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
Morwaeng was speaking this morning in Gaborone at the High-Level Advocacy event to accelerate HIV Prevention in Botswana. He said the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAPHA), in partnership with UNAIDS, UN agencies, the Global Fund and PEPFAR, have started a process of developing transition readiness plan for sustainability of HIV prevention and treatment programmes.
“It is important for us, as a country that has had a fair share of donor support in the response to an epidemic such as HIV and AIDS, to look beyond the period when the level of assistance would have reduced, or ceased, thus calling for domestic financing for all areas which were on donor support.”
Morwaeng said this is important as the such a plan will guarantee that all the gains accrued from the response with donor support will be sustained until the end when “we reach the elimination of HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 20230,” he said.
“I commit to continue support efforts towards strengthened HIV prevention, accentuating HIV primary prevention and treatment as prevention towards Zero New Infections, Zero Stigma, Discrimination and Zero AIDS related death, to end AIDS in Botswana.”
He reiterated that government commits to tackle legislative, policy and programming challenges that act as barriers to the achievement of the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat.
In the financial year 2022/2023, a total of 119 Civil Society Organizations, including Faith Based Organizations, were contracted with an amount of P100 million to implement HIV and NCDs prevention activities throughout the country, and the money was drawn from the Consolidated Fund.
Through an upcoming HIV Prevention Symposium, technical stakeholders will use outcomes to develop the Botswana HIV Prevention Acceleration Road Map for 2023-2025.
Morwaeng stated that government will support and ensure that Botswana plays its part achieving the road map. He said there is need to put hands on the deck to ensure that Botswana sustains progress made so far in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
“There are tremendous achievements thus far to, reach and surpass the UNAIDS fast track targets of 95%- 95%- 95% by the year 2025. As reflected by the BAIS preliminary results of 2021, we now stand at 95- 98- 98 against the set targets.”
“These achievements challenge us to now shift our gears and strive to know who are the remaining 5% for those aware of their HIV status, 2% of enrolment on treatment by those aware of their status and 2% of viral suppression by those on treatment.”
Explaining this further, Morwaeng said shift in gears should extend to coming up with robust strategies of determining where these remaining people are as well as how they will be reached with the necessary services.
“These are just some of the many variables that are required to ensure that as a country, we are well positioned to reaching the last mile of our country’s response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.”