BL Premium reports that the government is planning to intensify the vetting of non-executive directors and other employees at state-owned entities (SOEs) to improve the quality of appointments.

Deputy director-general in the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), Melanchton Makobe, told parliament’s public enterprises portfolio committee on Wednesday that the vetting of employee appointments at SOEs would involve stringent background checks and would prohibit officials from doing businesses with the entity in which they were employed. There are no uniform criteria for the recruitment of board members and employees at public entities. DPE director-general Kgathatso Tlhakudi told MPs that the department was finalising a draft SOE bill that would address the reform of public entities to reduce the likelihood of corruption. It included adopting new ownership and governance models, appropriate categorisation of the entities and clarity in terms of the responsibilities of the board and shareholder. The draft bill is expected to be finalised at year’s end. The government over recent years has highlighted the need to expedite the reform of SOEs, as part of which it plans to reduce the amounts of bailouts given to ailing entities. Denel, which is in a restructuring process, and Mango, which entered businesses rescue in July, will still need funding from the government, Tlhakudi advised. He did not elaborate on the amounts the two entities required from the state.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thando Maeko at BusinessLive

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