As part of efforts to transform state institutions, the Director-General of the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), Prof. Michael Kpessa-Whyte, has issued a strong warning to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that the era of paying bonuses while making losses must end immediately.
Speaking on what he described as a troubling pattern across some public institutions, Prof. Kpessa-Whyte made it clear that SIGA is tightening oversight and will no longer tolerate what many Ghanaians see as an abuse of public resources.
The Director-General made this strong case when he was speaking on the sidelines of the 2026 SIGA Stakeholders’ Conference in Accra.
“You Can’t Make Losses and Pay Bonuses”
SIGA’s renewed crackdown stems from the principle that performance must match reward.
According to the Director-General, all SOEs operate under performance contracts with clearly defined financial and operational benchmarks. Bonuses, he stressed, are not automatic entitlements but rewards tied strictly to meeting or exceeding those targets.
This indicates that loss-making state institutions that still pay bonuses are flouting the rules.
“Bonuses traditionally are rewards for good work done… if your books are showing that you have not done very well… then it is just honourable for you yourself to know that you can’t pay bonuses,” he stressed.
He added, “In the performance contracts that SIGA signs… there are benchmarks beyond which when you go, you are allowed to pay bonuses…but if you don’t get to that benchmark, you couldn’t be paying bonuses to yourself.”
A Practice That Defies Basic Business Logic
Prof. Kpessa-Whyte questioned the logic behind the practice, noting that no serious private business would reward management when the company is underperforming.
This, for many observers, is ironic. They cannot fathom why struggling state institutions reward themselves while depending on taxpayer support.
“You are doing business. You are not making any profits—in fact, you are making losses—and then you are paying yourself bonuses. Nobody would do that in a private business,” he noted.
Stronger Monitoring and Enforcement
SIGA says it is now stepping up monitoring of SOEs’ financial records, with a sharper focus on revenue and expenditure lines.
The authority insists it has full visibility into how public enterprises operate financially and will act where discrepancies arise. Any SOE found paying bonuses without meeting performance benchmarks risks sanctions, including possible governance interventions.
Beyond bonuses, SIGA is also targeting the payment of unapproved board allowances, another area flagged for abuse.
“We expect that all financial transactions are recorded in the accounting practices of the state-owned enterprises… we know where all monies go by way of expenditure. We know their revenue lines, we know their expenditure lines. You can’t make losses and pay bonuses,” he added.
“If at the end of the year… you are unable to declare profits, and we see a line that shows that you have paid bonuses to yourselves…then it means that you have flouted a directive,” Prof. Kpessa Whyte noted.
“Those practices of paying bonuses and then also paying board allowances that are not authorised must stop with immediate effect.,” he further insisted.
The Bottomline
For ordinary Ghanaians, the crackdown could not come at a better time. Many SOEs have struggled financially in recent years, even as concerns grow about inefficiency and weak corporate governance.
By enforcing stricter rules on compensation, SIGA hopes to align incentives with performance, ensuring that rewards are earned, not assumed.
