During the fifth staging of the Public Bodies’ Corporate Governance Awards, The Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ) Ltd. emerged the night’s biggest winners as the recipients of the Greta Bogues Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance and the Finance Minister’s Award for Board Composition, Functions and Structure. The event was held on Thursday, December 1, 2022 at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.

FCJ unseated three-time winner, the National Health Fund (NHF), which in previous years has held the title of most awards since the inception of the public sector governance awards. The entity’s big win follows a thorough review by a judging panel comprised of persons from the public and private sectors with vast experience in corporate governance.

The Public Bodies’ Corporate Governance Awards is jointly held by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service and the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica. It’s purpose is identifying and rewarding public bodies that have established high standards of corporate governance disclosure and practices. The awards apply to Public Bodies which are governed by the Public Bodies Management and Accountability Act and the Corporate Governance Framework.

Corporate Governance a Priority for the GOJ

In his keynote address, Hon. Nigel Clarke, DPhil., MP, Minister of Finance and Public Service, was clear to stress the importance of good corporate governance in the GOJ.

“The reason why we persist with this [Public Bodies’ Corporate Governance Awards] is that what gets measured gets done… and we take time out to recognise the achievements of public bodies and the critically important areas of governance. Public bodies are responsible for 466 billion dollars of expenditure in this fiscal year, across 146 public bodies,” he noted.

A similar sentence was echoed by Keith Duncan, President of PSOJ, regarding the importance of upholding a good governance framework in the public sector,

“It’s important that our society implement robust systems of governance critical to transparent and efficient operations. I believe it is important that we recognise the effort made by each entity who have submitted their governance processes for scrutiny and assessment. You are all champions in elevating the bar for good governance in Jamaica.”

NHF and National Export-Import Bank of Jamaica place second and third respectively for the Greta Bogues Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance. While the second and third runner-ups for the Finance Minister’s Award for Board Composition, Functions and Structure were the National Housing Trust and the National Export-Import Bank of Jamaica.

NHF was also presented the award for Corporate Governance, Policies, Procedures and Practices and Risk Measurement and Internal Controls, while the Compliance and Disclosure of Information went to the Office of Utilities Regulation.

Special awards were presented for the Best Website (National Health Fund) and the Best Annual Report (Factories Corporation of Jamaica). While the Port Authority of Jamaica walked away with the Most Improved Public Body award.

 

Source: https://www.mof.gov.jm/unions-sign-new-public-sector-compensation-agreement-2/