Adopting the Corporate Governance Referential on the Sectoral Level (TN0032)

Adopting the corporate governance referential on the sectoral level

12. Adopt the corporate governance referential on the sectorial level

Commitment Text:

After the drafting of the national reference for corporate governance “RNG” during the period of implementation of the first national OGP action plan, this aims to establish the principles and mechanisms of governance, in both public and private sectors. The work will be focused on instituting this national reference on a certain number of public and private institutions.

Milestones:

• Organizing a training for trainers (10), auditors (10) and assistants (10) in the field of technical assistance in accordance with national reference for corporate governance,
• Establishing the national reference for corporate governance on publicly owned companies and a private enterprise.

Responsible institution: Presidency of the Government

Supporting institution(s):

Start date: June 2016        End date: July 2018

Context and Objectives

This commitment builds on the previous action plan which introduced a repository of corporate governance and resulted in the development of a guide on ethics-based practices to prevent corruption. As reported in the end of term report of the first action plan it was unclear how widely the repository had been used.

The commitment promises to train auditors and accountants and to have state-owned enterprises use the national reference on corporate governance. However, the commitment does not specify intended policy changes or results, therefore its specificity is low. This commitment does not contain any element that would advance any of the OGP values of access to information, citizen participation or public accountability. Additionally, the CSOs that are part of the OGP steering committee  have questioned the reasoning behind charging 30TND (15 USD) for the corporate governance guide. This does not represent a substantial income for the National Institute for Standardization and Industrial Property (Institut National de la Normalisation et de la Propriété Industrielle- INOPRI)

and discourages use of the guide.

Completion

This commitment completion is limited. The government self-assessment report mentions that some trainings were conducted but does not specify the number of participants. The report also mentions that some agencies requested the implementation of the reference, but none were selected until now.

Next Steps

The IRM researcher recommends to not carry forward this commitment in the next action plan.

12. Adopting the corporate governance referential on the sectorial level

Commitment Text:

After the drafting of the national reference for corporate governance “RNG” during the period of implementation of the first national OGP action plan, this aims to establish the principles and mechanisms of governance, in both public and private sectors. The work will be focused on instituting this national reference on a certain number of public and private institutions.

Milestones:

• Organizing a training for trainers (10), auditors (10) and assistants (10) in the field of technical assistance in accordance with national reference for corporate governance,
• Establishing the national reference for corporate governance on publicly owned companies and a private enterprise.

Responsible institution: Presidency of the Government

Start date: June 2016 End date: July 2018

Editorial Note: This is an abbreviated version of the commitment text. For the full commitment text from the Tunisia National Action Plan, see here.

Commitment Aim:

This commitment has the same theme as Commitment 6 in the previous action plan. While in the previous action it aimed to establish the national corporate governance repository, the commitment in the 2016-2018 action plan has focused on the establishment of the principles and mechanisms of corporate governance, both in public and private sector. The Presidency of the Government included this commitment as a second phase that would build on the foundations of the previous one. The commitment resulted in the development of a guide on ethics-based practices to prevent corruption. As reported in the end-of-term report of the first action plan it was unclear how widely the repository had been taken up and used.

Status

Midterm: Limited

The implementation of the commitment during midterm assessment was limited. The government midterm self-assessment report mentions that some government agencies requested to adopt a reference, but none were granted. [57] [58] The midterm report also mentions that several training courses were designed, but the IRM researcher could not assess if they were conducted during this time.

End of term: Limited

The government End-of-Term self-assessment report mentions that three training courses were conducted. [59]An interview with Walid Fehri from the Presidency of the Government confirmed that no further action was carried out since the midterm. [60] The status of the commitment during the end-of-term assessment remains limited.

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Did Not Change

Civic Participation: Did Not Change

Public Accountability: Did Not Change

The commitment is internal-facing and was assessed by IRM as not relevant to OGP values. Additionally, due to the limited completion during implementation this commitment did not change government practice of openness.

Carried Forward?

This commitment was not carried forward.