Journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has provided further clarification on the reported profits and surpluses of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) following the publication of the State Ownership Report for 2025.
In a Facebook post, Mr Azure Awuni said he had engaged an official of the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) after previously calling for clarity on the figures.
He said his main concern was about subvented SOEs seeking to associate themselves with the reported profitability of SOEs, despite the distinction between profits and surpluses.
“Following my call for clarity in a previous post, I have had a detailed discussion with an official of the State Interest and Accountability Authority (SIGA) regarding the SOEs’ profits and surpluses reported following the State Ownership Report for 2025.”
Mr Azure Awuni said he had previously highlighted some SOEs that had performed exceptionally well and was therefore not surprised by the overall performance reported by SIGA.
He, however, noted that foreign exchange gains had been a major contributor to the profitability of the SOEs.
“Long before this report, I had serialised some of the SOEs that have performed exceptionally well in recent times, and I was not surprised by the overall performance, even though forex gains have been a major contributor to the profitability of the SOEs.”
According to him, his confusion had centred on subvented SOEs attempting to benefit from the positive public reaction to the reported profitability.
“My confusion has been about the subvented SOEs that are trying to hijack the profitability euphoria. The SIGA official has made things clearer, and that should help in the ongoing discussions.”
Mr Azure Awuni said the SIGA official explained that surpluses recorded by subvented SOEs were not included in the profits declared by SIGA.
“According to this official, the surpluses of the subvented SOEs have not been included in the profit SIGA declared.”
He said the official further explained that such surpluses should not automatically be interpreted as evidence of exceptional performance by the chief executives or management of the organisations.
“The official said those surpluses are not necessarily a result of any extraordinary performance by the CEOs or management of those organisations. In some situations, such surpluses mean underperformance.”
Using the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) as an example, Mr Azure Awuni said the SIGA official explained that a surplus at the agency could simply mean it had not spent all the funds allocated to it by government within the year.
“For instance, the official explained that if the YEA declared a surplus, it is not an achievement that should be celebrated. It means the YEA, for some reason, could not disburse all the amount it received from the government within a given year.”
He said the reasons could include late disbursement of funds, failure to undertake planned activities or delays in paying beneficiaries within the year.
“This could be because the money came late, because the YEA did not undertake all the activities it was supposed to, or because it did not pay some of its beneficiaries within the given year.”
Mr Azure Awuni stressed that YEA was only one example, with several other SOEs publishing details of their revenues and surpluses following SIGA’s report.
He added that SIGA queries SOEs that record surpluses and requires them to account for their activities and explain why funds budgeted for those activities were not spent.
“At the level of SIGA, SOEs that declare surpluses are queried, and they are asked to explain their activities and why they did not spend the money budgeted for those activities.”
In his assessment, Mr Azure Awuni said a surplus should therefore not automatically be equated with profit or financial gain.
“In short, per this official’s explanation, the mere fact that the YEA recorded a surplus does not amount to an achievement. Even though it is called surplus, it is not a ‘profit’ or a ‘gain.’”
He concluded by urging the media to scrutinise SOEs that are presenting their surpluses as part of the reported profitability of state-owned enterprises.
“It could be a result of underperformance, and the media should interrogate the SOEs that are tapping into the profitability hype despite having been cautioned against misleading the public.”
