Onesmus Pandu Tobias

Public enterprises are businesses owned by the state and into which the state directly invests funds onto them to ensure they remain operational, intending to make them profitable.

The state also ensures that the process of recruiting the managers for public enterprises is done appropriately. 

This is important for managers to perform the tasks that are entrusted to them, and the responsibility of managing the country’s scarce resources within the enterprises. 

However, most of the public enterprises are not generating profits, despite the state continuing to pump a lot of taxpayers’ money yearly through state bailouts and hefty budget allocations. 

Their long-term sustainability, therefore, becomes a burden to the state coffers, as having them operational will cost the state even more funds. 

Therefore, an intervention is required to address the issues of non-profitability and the management dilemma that is persistent and resulting in an economical challenge for the state.

 The performances of most of the public enterprises in Namibia are in a dreadful state, which has attracted negative attention, specifically in the management area, which requires a wholly different approach by managers as an intervention that can stimulate the overall performance to produce brilliant economic results that will ensure self-sustainability in a long run. 

The level of management of state enterprises should be indistinguishable from that of their counterparts in the private sector – both in management capability and self-sustaining capability. 

I am not in any way suggesting that public enterprises should be managed the same way as private entities, but the current state of affairs in the public enterprises has rather made notable news that brought up a comparison of the two sectors. 

Public enterprises should be managed by a competed, transparent, accountable and inclusive manager, who can understand and control the contribution of all employees in the state enterprises. 

Currently, such capabilities are lacking in most of the managers that are heading the public enterprises. 

Many public enterprises are managed by individuals who overlook the important aspect, such as respectable labour practices and accountability of their work. 

Until the recent development, public enterprises were under the Ministry of Public enterprises, overseeing the financial and operational performance of public enterprises. 

Public enterprises existed under this ministry for six years, in which a lot has happened, such as the improvement of governance and executives in some of the enterprises; however, there are still many public enterprises that are recording huge losses and continue to depend on state bailouts. 

  The decision to have the public enterprises under the Ministry of Finance should come as a welcome decision that was made to bring positive changes in public enterprises’ financial and operational performance. 

One should have a positive outlook on this new development, which I expect to bring new ways of doing things into the public enterprises and change the status quo in which public enterprises are currently operating.  

The new way of managing public enterprises in Namibia should be informed of all the happening within the enterprises at all times, and the appointment of boards should be done in a transparent way that will guarantee that the entity is effectively supervised. 

This has been lacking in most of the public enterprises in Namibia, and it has resulted in poor performance of such public enterprises. 

The status quo in the public enterprises cannot continue; the public enterprises should start to be productive and profitable to create wealth and employment opportunities in the country. 

The country cannot further continue to sustain enterprises that are making losses from their operations – and at the end of the day, they require hefty bailouts from the state, which they are supposed to generate income for.

 The contributing factor to non-productive public enterprises is mainly because of the poor management of enterprises; managers responsible do not perform to the required standards, which are sufficient enough to result in them generating profits for the state. 

The required intervention that can be implemented as a strategy to aid the performance of public enterprises can be found in the application of the concept of holistic management in the management of public enterprises. 

Holistic management is the concept that incorporates forward-thinking from the management team and positive contributions from all the employees. 

It requires that the holistic manager possess skills and knowledge to be able to manage the enterprise as a whole by having an understanding of all aspects, having professional knowledge and the ability to practically apply managerial skills.  

In holistic management, the manager of an organisation should understand the personal and human qualities, and give the employees the needed insight as well as the needed management tools, making informed decisions that balance key social, environmental and financial considerations. 

Furthermore, the holistic manager should command discipline among employees as well as daily concentration and focus on work activities. 

Holistic management can entice public enterprises to improve their overall performance, improved profit and self-sustainability when applied accordingly. 

Perhaps the state should consider moving toward the use of holistic managers that understand the whole public enterprise and address the challenges using the holistic management concept as a strategy to revive the non-profit making public enterprises in Namibia.

*Onesmus Pandu Tobias is a public servant, academic consultant and private tutor. He writes on his own accord. He can be reached at: toby11pandu@gmail.com or on social media.