Sale of state entities will be transparent: MP

STATE Enterprises Minister Sasindran Muthuvel says the sale of any of its entities will be done in an open and transparent manner directed by the National Executive Council.
He was commenting on reports of the proposed sale of non-core government-owned assets which he said would be done according to the Kumul Consolidated Holdings Act.
“There has been no approval (yet) to complete a sale transaction of any state-owned assets. It is business as usual,” Muthuvel said.
“The only authority that can review and approve (the sale of) these assets is the National Executive Council.”
He called it unfortunate that the information about the initiatives being considered by Kumul Telikom Holdings Ltd (KTHL) and Kumul Consolidated Holdings Ltd (KCHL) were being misconstrued.
“When this Government embarked on a major restructure and refinancing programme for our SOEs, we knew that tough decisions would need to be made,” he said.
“When considering the prospect of selling down or privatising these businesses, some unpopular steps would have to be taken.
“The Government has made several decisions on the future of these businesses to provide competent affordable SOE services which improve the welfare of citizens, and to provide a reasonable rate of return on the investment made,” he said.
Muthuvel said with the assistance of bilateral and multilateral partners KCH had taken steps to address the legislative and regulatory issues and improve accountability and transparency.
“We are reintroducing good corporate governance,” he said.
“We have begun a tireless process of improving the capacity and quality of boards of directors and they have in turn begun a process of reviewing their leadership and management teams.”