THE STANDARDIZATION OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE POLICIES ACROSS STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES IN LIBERIA, WEST AFRICA

Abstract

This research has focused on how the use of standardized corporate governance policies
across state-owned enterprises in Liberia, West Africa leads to better performance and increased
revenue generation capacity and creates more financially stable and sustainable enterprises.
Across these state-owned enterprises, the research has sought to identify the existence of
core corporate governance components, such as appropriate Board composition and mix of skills,
Board procedures, directors’ remunerations in line with best practice, code of business ethics,
internal control procedures, risk management framework, disaster recovery system, business
continuity procedures, appointment of an internal auditor and independent external auditors, an
independent audit committee, management information systems, compliance framework, Board
corporate governance committee and improvement plan, formalized corporate governance policies
and procedures and code, Board accountability to shareholders and management accountability to
the Board, timely accurate disclosure of all material matters, financial statements prepared in
accordance with international IPSAS, high-quality and transparent financial annual reports,
independent non-executive Board members and advisers, conduct of shareholder meetings,
policies on related party transactions and extraordinary transactions, clearly defined and explicit
dividend policies, and clear definition of roles and authorities of stakeholders.
The study demonstrates the importance of good corporate governance policies across
state-owned enterprises in Liberia and describes existing processes of corporate governance
policies in Liberia state-owned enterprises.
It has analyzed the reasons for the collapse of some state-owned enterprises in Liberia,
mainly due to inadequate or insufficient compliance with good corporate governance standards.
Additionally, this research has investigated how the collapse of these Liberia state-owned
enterprises could have been averted by ensuring good corporate governance practices.
The research investigated these problems and sought to point out the many challenges as
well as benefits of standardizing corporate governance policies across state-owned enterprises in
Liberia.
These challenges and others have been treated in this research and appropriate
recommendations made for the consideration of relevant Liberian policymakers.