Govt pledges to protect investors from corporate corruption

GOVERNMENT, through the proposed Investment Policy, has undertaken to provide investor protection from corrupt corporate practices.
Currently, Swaziland ranks lowest among Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries in the strength of investor protection through disclosure of proposed transactions, director liability and the availability of access to internal documents and proof that can be used during a trial.
“This means that not only are company directors and shareholders at a disadvantage in dealing with improprieties, the government, which is a theoretical shareholder in every company by virtue of the requirement of businesses to pay taxes, is at a serious disadvantage in, for example, following up on companies that dishonestly renege on their tax commitments,” the draft policy states.
It says government intends to restructure the process for enforcing contracts as it recognises that efficiency in commercial contract enforcement is essential in keeping the wheels of commerce moving by enabling reasonably fast debt recovery.
This, it is envisaged, would allow both banks and producers of goods to have confidence that they can recover their money should their customers fail to pay their debts.
“Usually, court procedures are involved in debt recovery. Swaziland does not perform well in this area,” the consultants noted.
“It is close to the bottom in the number of procedures involved; at two and a half years, it is virtually at the bottom in terms of time needed to enforce a contract.”
Meanwhile, the country ranks midway in the list of SADC countries in terms of providing protection to borrowers and lenders.
“Government accordingly intends to improve the process for obtaining credit by improving the availability of credit information and increasing protection of the legal rights of both borrowers and lenders,” the policy states.

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