PHILIPSBURG:--- Finally, last week the committee meeting on the 2013 annual reports of government-owned companies took place. A meeting that I had requested since April of this year.
By this time, according to law, the annual reports 2014 are due and should have been in the possession of Parliament. They are not.
But al least the 2013 reports gave Parliament something to go by in questioning government regarding the operation of these government entities. The Finance Minister, who is obligated by law to forward these reports to Parliament, obviously is not privy to any operational details of the companies.
The parallel which is often made between this type of institution and privately owned companies does not hold on one crucial point and that is the point of ownership. Differently than privately-owned businesses, government companies are owned by the people, represented by the government, that in turn entrusts the respective boards, and it -the government- is accountable to Parliament. A Management/Manager/Director is responsible for the daily operations of these respective companies. This is how it should be!
Parliament is not copied on the annual reports of these companies to fill their file cabinets. Parliament needs to act on these, by calling government to give account for what they allow the companies to do or not to do.
The Gumbs-cabinet has agreed that all ministers are collectively responsible for government-owned companies, so I would expect the Prime Minister to be briefed on all matters pertaining to government owned companies.
It would be a crying shame if again on Monday, the Prime Minister comes to Parliament unprepared to give account of the Harbor-Zebec deal or hides behind the excuse of non-disclosure, which is an act of infringement on the rights of parliament.
