Awkward questions bombarded the new committee on corporate governance

Already in the first display to the public, the National Commission on Corporate Governance was attacked by awkward questions.
Why is so much difference between banks, which are public, and those who are not on the Exchange in respect of transparency in governance? When the Board of Directors of BSE will adopt a code of corporate governance and why the Ministry of Finance miss inaugural event of the Committee today?
Questions such acuity were heard in the hall of the Forum, with the newly established committee which is presented in Sofia. To the emergence akushirat attended her names such as Florina Fichte, Permanent Representative of the World Bank in Bulgaria, Philip Armstrong, Director at the Global Forum on koporativno management Shtrenger Christian, a member of the similar committee in Germany and vice-chairman of the advisers from the private sector to Global Corporate Governance Forum. Foreign guests stayed visibly impressed by the interest in the new committee of equal participation of professionals and business in it, and last but not least and that in addition to sharp questions, the forum shall be heard and satisfying answers.
According to an analysis presented to the public, the dominant sectors of the economy in our present concentrated ownership, which gives rise to transparency. It also imposed a centralized approach to implementation of good corporate governance practices, ie under the „top down“ by law and regulatory will, not free initiative of the business.
These changes are costly for public companies and is therefore difficult to be implemented effectively only through the will of the public companies considered by the FSC Ralitsa Again, I remember in 1998 when I worked as a financial analyst and even 6-monthly financial statements of traded companies were apocryphal, get them off illegally from internal sources at the companies. This time, thankfully, is irretrievably gone, but still there are many tasks to improve corporate governance in Bulgaria, and throughout the world, added Again.
Already has a new idea, in whose work benefits the public companies – they want to be a good enough level not only because of the supervisory activities of the regulator, but also thanks to the public and the shareholders who so request.
Another nuance of the topic corporate governance and transparency Nelly Kordovska cast by the BNB, which indicate that the central bank can not completely satisfied with the quality of corporate governance of banks, and practices of risk management. The fact is that the four banks, whose shares are traded on the stock exchange, significantly different from others, such as transparency, but this stems from the specific structure of financial institutions. Transparency protects shareholders, but sometimes happens over 90% of the capital of a bank is in the hands of one shareholder, and this explains the difference in the quantitative disclosures.
Transparency protects stakeholders, and sometimes it is not limited to shareholders. An enterprise may have hundreds of workers and dozens of thousands of customers and counterparties. It is therefore extremely important is how transparent and how to disclose the information, although not publicly. This opinion is entered in the discussion Moravenov and Manu, who is among members of the National Committee on Corporate Governance.
Another controversial topic in the first forum of the new committee was the state’s role as a shareholder. How to proceed when the Chiefs of Cabinet seats to receive boss boards of state-controlled companies, which is inconsistent with corporate practice? What is the risk of recurrence of curiosities in the American bank where the Supervisory Board has voted financial decisions theater director, he asked Professor Bistra Boeva of World Economy, as the chef.
Only one insurance company in the country years ago and it has been registered, such a practice – specialist table tennis could be entered into the composition of the governing body of the company. Today it is not possible since the requirements were strengthened in recent years. Perhaps the next step is to consider a recommendation for the composition of management and supervisory boards in their entirety. That is not only individual members have adequate experience and qualifications, and as a team to have adequate decision-making, said Ralitsa Again and gave an example. Can members of a Supervisory Board are excellent lawyers, but do not have adequate specialist in accounting and auditing, and thus do not meet the needs of management.
We should not be too flattering to the state, because during all these years, when under the mass privatization several companies have emerged on the stock exchange, the state did not show proper respect to the new shareholders. And showed no respect to the capital market was to blame Again.
She illustrated this with what happened in Sunny Beach, where the state as a majority shareholder in charge decided to transfer assets for 13 million of Nessebar Municipality. This happened in polozhevie that are most profitable assets of the company and it is still 5 000 shareholders. This is the ideal case of a stripping plant uneconomic to sell an asset, said Again. When the law was developed, nobody thought that someone will donate that asset, be it a public entity such as municipality.
Was involved in the discussion and Ivan Takev by BSE, which was supposed to answer the question whether the Exchange and the Corporate Governance Committee will make necessary to verify the quality of shares that will be marketed in the privatization of companies from the Bulgarian energy holding company.
Intentions of the state were to become public companies, companies from the structure of BEH, this will be similar to the BTC. Napraktika This method requires that every one of these companies to walk the path with all its procedures. Primalagame not differentiated approach to this impending privatization in energy, concluded Takev.
With the introduction of the National Corporate Governance Code and taking a commission to implement it, it became clear that Bulgaria replicate the best practices established in developed economies. Fourteen members are to belong to it, for its first President was elected Rumen Radev, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria. So far 49 of the companies registered on the BSE apply the Code and the Commission wants it to be applied by other companies in the private sector.

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