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Ethiopia: Privatisation Enterprise Appoints Board Chairman
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Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)
17 September 2007
Posted to the web 18 September 2007
Issayas Mekuria
Addis Ababa
Hailemariam Desalegn, social affairs advisor to the Prime Minister with a ministerial portfolio, has been appointed as the Board Chairman of the Privatisation and Public Enterprises Supervisory Agency (PPESA) following the resignation of Mekonnen Manyazewal, state minister of Finance and Economic Development, who held the post for the past five years.
A letter Addisu Legesse, deputy Prime Minister and minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, wrote to the management of the Board two weeks ago announced the appointment of Hailemariam and the acceptance of the resignation request of Mekonnen considering his alleged work overload.
Mekonnen was the second Board Chairman of the Agency since the Privatisation Agency became an autonomous establishment. The first Chairman, Assefa Abreha, who has been languishing behind bars for the past six years after recently being sentenced to nine years imprisonment, was also the general manager of one of PPESA's two mother institutions, the Public Enterprises Supervisory Authority (PESA).
In 2004 the Privatisation Agency and PESA merged to form PPESA. Until his resignation this month, Mekonnen, who was Board Chairman of the Privatisation Agency after the arrest of Assefa, has been serving as the Board Chairman of PPESA.
Back in February 1994, the Privatisation Agency was established to re-privatise over 220 enterprises that were confiscated by the Derg military regime in 1975. Its other mandate was to screen and return properties expropriated without proclamation to the original owners.
Before the merger, PESA was responsible for the administration of enterprises to be privatised in the future. After some of the enterprises were privatised or restored to their original owners, PPESA currently administers 115 enterprises.
PPESA's Board makes the final decision on the fate of the enterprises under it approving or rejecting privatisation decisions of the management. The Board also approves the budgets for each enterprise and designs the working policies of the enterprises.
Current members of the Board include Beyene Gebremeskel, general director of the Agency; Alemseged Assefa, vice governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE); Kassahun Follo, president of Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions (CETU); Sileshi Lemma from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI); and Mesfin Lemma from the Prime Minister's Office.
The new appointee, Hailemariam, was the president of the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPRS) from 2003 to March 2006. He wilfully ended his tenure following medical advice he received from the Army Forces Hospital to work only non-stress inducing jobs as he was found to be suffering from hypertension. He was then appointed as Social Affairs Advisor to the Prime Minister a month after his resignation of the presidency.
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Attending his primary and secondary education at his birthplace in Wolayta Sodo, Hailemariam obtained his first degree in Civil Engineering from Addis Abeba University (AAU) and his second degree in Water Technology abroad. Until the time he was made the President of SNNPRS, he was dean and lecturer of the former Arba Minch Water Technology Institute. Hailemariam is also the chairman of Southern Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Movement (SEPDM), one of the four founding members of the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
"During Mekonnen's term, the Board has been giving quick decisions, especially on enterprises that were to be privatised," said one Board member of the Agency. "Moreover, he was also better informed than the rest of the Board and good at evaluating plans of the enterprises."
Mekonnen is not a member of any board while Hailemariam is the board chairman of the Maritime and Transit Services Enterprise.
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