Shareholders must be vigilant

Story: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare
Shareholders have been asked to take keen interest in the day-to-day running of the companies they have invested in in other to ensure the proper management of their interest.
They have also been urged to feel free and take it upon themselves to investigate and interrogate the actions and inaction of the management and the board of directors who run the companies.
At a public lecture in Accra on good corporate governance, Mr Adu Anane Antwi, a Chartered Accountant and legal practitioner said “shareholders are the owners of the company and are, therefore, the ultimate beneficiaries of well-run companies and the ultimate losers when the companies were badly run.
The lecture, sponsored by Tyron Flat Tyre Protection and the University College of Management Studies (UCOMS), was on the topic: “The role of shareholders in corporate governance”.
Mr Antwi said shareholders at annual general meetings (AGMs) should be courageous enough to interrogate the figures presented to them by the management and board of directors and request for any detailed explanation on the operations of the companies.
According to him, it was incumbent upon shareholders to actively partake in the debate to approve the salaries and allowances of the chief executive officers.
Mr Antwi regretted that instead of demanding what was due to shareholders during AGMs, they rather turned them into praise-singing seminars and have made AGMs the annual rituals of hearing what they had heard the previous year, except that the current one “is differently worded”.
He stated that shareholders should become mindful of their duties, and act with circumspection, otherwise, the management and board of directors would refer to their actions as "beyond bounds".
He said “shareholders are the ones with the authority to demand and enforce good governance of their companies”, and thus called for the setting up of what he referred to as “shareholder committees” in public corporations to represent shareholders when it comes to dealing with the board and managers on all matters in the companies.