State Ownership and Governance Policy for State-Owned Enterprises.

This Policy applies to all wholly-owned and majority owned State-owned enterprises and related subsidiaries, as defined by the Law, and moves from the consideration that State-owned enterprises play a critical role in Sierra Leone’s economy, because they undertake commercial activities and execute public objectives in key sectors, such as agriculture, energy, water, telecommunication, and financial services. This Policy aims at improving efficiency of the State-owned enterprises, at overcoming their underperformance and at strengthening their governance, in line with international best practices, in order to obtain a return on Government investment, creation of jobs and efficient service delivery. Specific objectives of this Policy are: establishment of a centralised ownership entity; promoting collaboration and building awareness among relevant stakeholders for efficient and transparent governance. The Policy concerns: concession, lease and licence agreements; institutional arrangements for implementing the ownership functions, including: monitoring financial and non-financial performance, guidelines on enterprises’ risk management, issuance of environmental licences and enforcement of environmental guidelines to evaluate environmental performance of enterprises, public procurement regulations, principles for good corporate governance, performance management, compliance with relevant standards, national emergencies and disasters management, innovation measures, anti-corruption compliance, environmental protection and reduction of negative impacts on the climate, protection of human and labour rights, respect of gender equality and diversity.