More state firms expected to turn the corner

MANILA, Philippines - The Governance Commission for Goverment-owned and controlled corporations (GCG) expects further improvement and enhancement of state-run firms given the recent reforms implemented in the last four years.

GCG chairman Cesar L. Villanueva said the future for the GOCC sector “looks promising” amid the policies and guidelines being put into place since President Aquino signed RA 10149 or the GOCC Governance Act of 2011 into law.

“We have evolved the governance commission to what it is today, an effective tool in order to pursue and institutionalize corporate governance in the public sector,” Villanueva said.

Since the GCG’s creation in August 2011, the agency has introduced various policies and procedures from regulatory compliance to ethical standards for GOCCs, except economic zone authorities, those under the central bank, and research institutions.

Villanueva stressed the GCG has espoused strengthening the role of the government in the governance of state-owned firms.

“In the past year alone, the governance commission has undertaken the basic steps for the oversight over the GOCC sector by establishing a tier framework and concrete structure for oversight of GOCC operations,” he said.

Villanueva said the GCG is also in its third year of implementing the performance agreement structure, which mandates the GOCCs to submit concrete and time-bound action plans and which would be used to for their own evaluation.

“All these we have done to well position the GOCC sector for sustained long-term success,” Villanueva said.

The GCG to date has abolished and privatized more than 20 state-owned firms found inactive, non-operational, and whose functions are no longer relevant to the state.