Accra, June 6, GNA - Professor Stephen Adei, President of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG), on Saturday said Boards of State Enterprises should be allowed to appoint their own chief executive officers.

He said the current practice where the same appointing authority select both the Board members and the Chief Executive Officers of State Enterprises run contrary to the ethics of good corporate governance. Prof Adei, who was speaking at the 15th marketing performance awards night of the Institute in Accra, said the good tradition of having the Board to appoint the Chief Executive Officer should be allowed to prevail in the country.

He said a Board could not be held accountable for the failure of an enterprise when it had no control over managers. "Best practice requires that the appointing authority appoints the Board and the Board appoints the Chief Executive Officer. Management should have no doubt that they are accountable to the Board, which in turn reports to the appointing authority in the case of State Own Enterprises and shareholders in the case of private companies," Prof Adei said.

The awards ceremony, which was organised to recognize individuals and institutions that excelled in the field of marketing in 2003 and thereby contributing to the development of the country was on the theme: "Great Marketing, Great Business."

Prof Adei said appointment of Directors to the Boards of enterprises should be devoid of political affiliation, social connection, old boys and girls network and tribal affiliations since such factors help to compromise the performance of the people.

Boards, he said, must be chosen solely on the basis of competence, loyalty and independence of thought.

He said "We must put on Boards men and women of proven integrity, competence and who have the capacity to contribute to the business of the institution to achieve its objectives."

Prof Adei called for autonomy and independence of the Board in the execution of their responsibility, saying, "Any Board which is not autonomous and independent, is as useless as an aching tooth." He stressed capacity building for Boards to enable them deliver on the goods.

Mr Alan Kyeremanten, Minister of Trade and Industry and President's Special Initiative, said government had initiated a number of programmes to promote 'Made in Ghana Goods.'

These he said included the establishment of a National Product Gallery to showcase locally manufactured products and to serve as a marketing platform for local companies registered with the scheme. There are also plans to establish five major Export Trading Houses that would constitute the primary vehicle for promoting Ghanaians export abroad in strategic markets and the introduction of a national Friday wear Initiative to promote the use of local fabrics in producing business wear.

The Minister called on the Institute to join hands with the government to sell the country to the external world. Professor Kwesi Andam, Vice-Chancellor Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, said Universities in the country had a big challenge of training graduates with the adequate knowledge to meet the needs of the Ghanaian industrial set up to help it stimulate the required economic growth for accelerated development.

In all 22 awards were given out. The highest award of marketing man and woman of the year went to Mr Kofi Nsiah Poku, Managing Director Kinapharma and Ms Adelaide Ahwireng, Managing Director, Fio Enterprise Limited respectively.

Mr Kofi Cobbold received the award for the Marketing Student of the Year and Professor Kwesi Andam received a special award for his contribution to the development of education in the country. 6 June 04

Attention recipients, item 02 ends first cast.