Senate Body Empowers Govt to Fire Board Members of State-Owned Entities

The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue on Wednesday empowered the federal government to fire/remove non-performing board members at State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). This was decided at a meeting of the apex committee on finance in the Upper House with Senator Saleem Mandviwala in the chair. The meeting unanimously approved a number of key amendments in the SOEs (Governance and Operations) Bill 2024 which empowered the federal government to appoint independent directors and remove non-performing board members at government-run entities. During the meeting, Additional Secretary Finance Qamar Abbasi highlighted plans to review the performance of board members at SOEs. In this regard, the senate panel approved the formation of a dedicated committee to evaluate board member performance. The federal government will now have the authority to appoint independent directors and remove underperforming board members. Senator Anusha Rehman supported these measures, stating that objections to executive powers in board member removals should be minimal. However, the Additional Secretary Finance acknowledged challenges in removing board members due to existing laws governing their appointment and tenure. To address this, the SOEs (Governance and Operations) (Amendment) Bill 2024 was unanimously approved by the committee. These amendments aim to enable the removal of board members based on performance evaluations, replacing previous criteria primarily focused on misconduct or corrupt practices.