Mr Stephen Asamoah Boateng, the Director General of SIGA, who announced this, said the move was to ensure effective and efficient management of the enterprises.

He urged the CEOs to get the basics right, be innovative and entrepreneurial, especially how they inter-trade and the support each other.

Mr Boateng was addressing the 2020 Performance Contract Signing Ceremony for 80 Specific State-Owned Enterprises in Accra.

The event was on the theme: "Transforming State Entities to Contribute Significantly Towards 'Ghana Beyond Aid'".

The contracts were signed between the Board of Directors and Management of Specific State-Owned Enterprises on one part, the Government, represented by SIGA and the respective Sector Ministries on the other side, in fulfilment of a statutory provision under the Regulations (196) of the Public Financial Management Act (L.I 2378).

The contracts focused on enhancing service delivery and efficiency of 19 different sectors of the economy, including manufacturing, agriculture, housing, trade, energy, aviation, roads, education, science, labour relations and transportation.

SIGA was established in June 2019 with the passage of the SIGA Act 2019 (Act 990); after the repeal of the State Enterprises Commission and the Divestiture Implementation Acts.

He said SIGA would set off at building data on all Specific State-Owned Enterprises and carry out vigorous monitoring of every entity that was signing the Contract.

"When SIGA staff call on you by any mode of contact, it is important your response rate is SMART and there are penalties for non-responsiveness and missing set targets and deadlines but we do not want any of you getting into this area," he added.

The Director-General said the SIGA law had given the Authority real teeth to bite and it would not shirk its responsibility to sanction.

"SIGA will work with you to come up with the Code of Corporate Governance and Conduct. This must be completed quickly to enable SIGA ensure higher standard of corporate practices across board," Mr Boateng said.

He said with the enactment of the SIGA law, the Performance Contracts been signed had serious implications for all, indicating that they had departed from the Commission era, where non-compliance did not mean anything.

"This time there are heavy penalties ranging from refusal to grant bonuses and financial charges," he said.

He said there would also be a recommendation to appointing authority to remove Management and Board of Directors and prosecution leading to court fines and jail terms.

He said many of the entities were saddled with huge legacy debts, which was hindering their smooth operations, while quite a number were not able to honour their statutory obligations causing all sorts of unpleasant public discourse and headline news.

He said a sizeable number have also lost business focus and have indulged in activities, which were not their core operations while others have jettisoned good corporate governance practices leading to avoidable challenges and decisions as well as Boardroom wrangling, some of which were in the public domain.

He called on the entities to concentrate on the future, which needed everyone's utmost cooperation, to realise the President's Vision through a focus on creativity, investments in human resource and modern business technology to deliver on their core mandate for which they were established.

"Avoid any hint of wrongdoing or scandals and, thirdly consciously promote local businessmen and businesswomen," he added.