SOE Boards

The Herald reports on a survey of SOE Directors, saying too many of appointments are politically influenced and too heavily weighted towards political correctness.

This is no surprise. The name Helengrad came into play as Labour demonstrated a ruthless approach to dissent from Year One. Anyone who criticised the Government in one area of work, would be ineligible for appointment to a board no matter how qualified.

It is natural for a Government to prefer to appoint people it knows and trusts. But that should not rule out appointing good competent people regardless of their politics.

The full results of the survey are here. The nine SOEs covered represent 98% of Govt equity in SOEs. One excellent suggestion, supported by two thirds of directors, was that non voting stock in SOEs be made available to the public, so that the discipline of sharemarket scrutiny could enhance the accountability for business and financial performance.