The Parliamentary Committee on Parastatal Bodies says it is impressed with the improvement in the operations of State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) since they were placed under the supervision of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) five years ago.
Committee Chairperson Hon. Peter Daka says the Committee continues to look to the IDC as a beacon of hope for parastatal companies.
“The Committee takes note of the fact that from the time the IDC took over the management of parastatals that have a business orientation, there has been some notable improvement in their operations,” Hon. Daka said.
He said the number of profitable companies in the IDC Group increased from eight in 2015 to 15 in 2019 while the number of companies declaring dividends increased from one in 2015 to eight in the same period.
Hon Daka was speaking at the IDC Group’s second Chief Financial Officers Academy and the fourth CFOs Forum under the theme “Consolidating Group Transformation gains – Growing from within” in Chisamba.
Speaking at the same event, member of the IDC Board of Directors, Mr David Kombe said the Board was happy with the tremendous improvement in timely financial reporting by IDC companies.
Mr Kombe, who is also Chairperson of the IDC Board Committee on Finance and Administration, said for the first time, over 70% of IDC companies had audited financial reports ready on time, a significant improvement from being 10 years late in some cases.
Mr Kombe urged companies under the IDC Group to exercise prudence in financial management and avoid unnecessary expenditure. He also urged the companies to clean up their balance sheets to be able to attract finance.