Sir Mekere was a great leader

AS one of the implementers of Sir Mekere’s reform programme, I would like to pay my tribute to this great statesman and role model.
Apart from his reforms in the financial sector, while he was prime minister, Sir Mekere initiated radical reforms in the state-owned enterprises (SoEs) sector in 2000.
He introduced legislations to bring about radical changes to SoEs after many years of being a great liability to the State as a result of gross mismanagement and political control.
He introduced independent regulation and monitoring – price setting and service standards, governance and accountability – which led to the establishment of Independent Public Business Corporation (IPBC, now Kumul Consolidated Holdings Ltd), the shareholder company of SoEs and Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC), regulator of SoEs.
I was privileged to pioneer the establishment of ICCC that saw reforms in the telecommunication sector – more specifically, the competition in the mobile telephony – and the airline sector as well as establishing a system of long-term price path and service standards for SoEs discarding adhoc decisions and political involvement.
However, while ICCC was strongly managed as an independent regulator for SoEs, IPBC started to veer, of course through heavy political influence from 2004 to 2010 thus, affecting governance of SoEs and undermining the objectives of Sir Mekere’s reforms.
The change in government in 2011 in parliament led to formation of former prime minister Peter O’Neill-led government and Sir Mekere was given the SoE portfolio to fix up the mess left by the previous regime.
He had only 10 months to fix the problem and I was appointed by the National Executive Council as managing director then then to help him.
Using his words: “SoEs were all in intensive care unit conditions requiring urgent transfusion”.
He was determined to change the status quo and worked tirelessly around the clock to save the SoEs.
He undertook a comprehensive review of SoEs, investigated and downsized IPBC, took away non-core functions, strengthened its legislation and canceled questionable contracts.
He did a great job and was an inspiration to the IPBC staff and gave hope to SoEs.
Unfortunately, he decided to leave politics by not contesting the 2012 election. Sadly, the good work he initiated was not progressed.
Instead, they were all undone by successive ministers and SoEs were once again subjected to political interference.
It’s a national shame that huge amounts of valuable time, work, commitment and resources spent on the reforms were wasted as a result of those who did not share Sir Mekere’s vision and leadership.
I recommend that the Government establish a distinguished yearly leadership award in Sir Mekere’s honour for young leaders with strong character and achievement in the public sector, committed to undertaking radical reforms to take this country back and set it towards a path of prosperity.

Thomas D Abe
Former CEO and Founder, ICCC
Former MD, IPBC