CmaBoardReleases
Title: Press Release: The Capital Markets Authority Ranked First in the Governance of Public Authorities with Independent Budget
Kuwait, January 8, 2022 – The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) ranked first among the entities with independent budget which are subject to the supervision of the State Audit Bureau (SAB) in terms of meeting the governance requirements with 92.2% in accordance with SAB’s annual report issued recently under the subject of “Important Financial Indicators, Control Phenomena, and Updates of the Financial Year 2020/2021”.
The mentioned report consisted of eight chapters, the last chapter included six control topics, one of which discussed “Public Sector and Corporate Governance”. It provided detailed results of the compliance of the government entities that are subject to SAB’s supervision in achieving the governance principles. The number of entities is (65), which included (29) ministries and public departments, (20) public authorities of subsidiary budget, and (16) public institutions with independent budget, of which the CMA ranked first.
The CMA has previously ranked second then first respectively in achieving such requirements during the financial years (2018/2019 and 2019/2020). In addition, the SAB has conducted panel discussions with the public sector’s governance specialist at the World Bank that resulted in amending the basis of report preparation and updating the attached forms of checking on the execution of the principles of public sector’s governance by the entities subject to its supervision, which arranged changes in the percentages of meeting those requirements during the financial year of the report.
It is worth mentioning that “governance” is regarded as an essential requirement for ensuring the development of the public sector as it is one of the fundamentals of the sound management and the administrative, financial and institutional reform that aim to enhance the principles of justice, transparency, disclosure, and accountability. Moreover, governance in the Kuwaiti public sector has a special importance particularly since Kuwait development vision of 2035 includes a part that is concerned with adopting a comprehensive and effective governance framework for the public sector in all its levels in accordance with a legal and legislative framework represented by the Constitution of the State of Kuwait, international treaties and agreements, laws related to the principles of governance, the Cabinet’s resolutions, and the circulars of the Ministry of Finance in this regard.
On the other hand, by reviewing the basic pillars of the public sector’s governance represented by the principles of law enforcement, protection of public funds, disclosure and transparency, accountability, integrity, effectiveness and efficiency, protection of the right of stakeholders, and principles related to sustainability and social responsibility, it shall be clear that the CMA has made significant strides in the paths of those principles throughout its first period of work in general and starting from the financial year 2015/2016 in particular, which witnessed its implementation of governance on the companies subject to its supervision after applying it to itself thereby serving as an example to those entities and in line with its being a governmental institution. Moreover, the CMA has also followed up its execution of full disclosure policy on its commissioners and employees to avoid conflict of interest and exploitation of internal information, achieve the best protection and balance between its performance of work and the interests of its relevant persons, and enhance reassurance and trust in its dealers and the entities subject to it supervision at the same time. The latest report of SAB has included remarkable information regarding meeting the governance requirements at the companies subject to CMA and SAB’s supervision, as 75% of the those companies achieved compliance percentages of around 90%.
In conclusion, as the CMA is proud of this achievement that reflects the effectiveness of its approach and its strict compliance with its responsibilities as a supervising entity that represents a role model, it highly appreciates the efforts and constructive cooperation of the SAB with the CMA to achieve its objectives and correct its paths when required which confirms the integration of the roles of our national entities to achieve the development objectives of Kuwait and raise its concern in various forums. The CMA also takes this opportunity to appreciate the efforts of its associates to strengthen this achievement and repeat it every year to reach a total commitment ratio, as achieved in the financial year 2019/2020, taking into consideration the report’s updates during the latest year.
Ends-
Notes to Editors:
The Capital Markets Authority was established pursuant to Law No. 7/2010, approved by the Kuwaiti Parliament in February 2010. Pursuant to the Law, the CMA shall regulate and supervise the securities activities, achieve transparency and fairness, observe listed companies’ execution of Corporate Governance regulations, and protect investors from unfair practices which violate the CMA's Law.
Furthermore, the Law's provisions stipulate the supervision of mergers, acquisitions, and disclosure operations. The CMA also aims to provide awareness programs related to securities activities.
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