Latin American Public Companies Share Experiences in Corporate Governance

The sixth successful meeting of the Latin American Network on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) took place June 28 in Lima in an effort to help improve the region’s public companies through a continuous exchange of experiences and knowledge about policy, practices and reforms. The event was organized by CAF - Development Bank of Latin America, together with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and hosted by the National Fund for the Financing of State Business Activity (FONAFE), with the support of the Spanish Government and the UK Prosperity Fund.

The forum enabled the attending governments and institutions to share their experience on policy, institutional frameworks and best practices to foster advances in corporate governance of public enterprises through the use of the OECD guidelines. The forthcoming Guidelines on Anti-Corruption and Integrity in SOEs ("ACI Guidelines") enriched the debate, along with the CAF Guidelines for Good Corporate Governance of SOEs, which provided an additional useful reference adapted to the Latin American context.

"One of CAF’s five pillars of action is institutionality,” said CAF representative in Peru Manuel Malaret in his keynote speech. “It| has three specific lines: public management, state modernization, and transparency and accountability, which are essential to promoting good governance practices both at the central and territorial levels.” Malaret added that the institution, in coordination with the OECD, has been working to promote the corporate governance of state-owned companies in Latin America since 2011, using a network of actors representing installations, boards of directors and senior management.

The discussion agenda was marked by topics such as the implementation of the new OECD Anti-Corruption and Integrity Guidelines, as well as best practices and lessons learned from the implementation of national and regional regulations, recent developments and reforms in Latin America, board functions and responsibilities to ensure the performance and integrity of state-owned enterprises, and board composition and nomination practices in supporting objective and independent judgment. The event also featured case studies on a few state-owned enterprises, such as Petrobras, COFIDE and FDN, and the role of external and internal auditors in promoting the integrity and performance assurance of state-owned enterprises.

Through the promotion of good practices both at capital market and public and private levels, CAF's Corporate Governance program seeks to facilitate long-term management, as well as transparency and accountability, thus contributing to the region’s sustainable development