According to the PKC’s own press release, the government also looked over the consultative agency’s recommendations for amending the law that circumscribes its work, adding the job of coordinating the administration of state-owned capital companies to its purview.
The amendments would also essentially alter the current mandate of the institution’s Consultative Council, providing for its transformation into the Council of Coordinating Institutions, set to be appointed by the Cabinet from among the PKC council and ministry-delegated representatives.
As the release relates, since April 2012 the PKC has been working on issues of good governance in state-owned enterprises, leading the working group on implementing OECD guidelines for best-practices in managing state capital firms. In June of 2013 it submitted to the Cabinet an informative report on state participation in assessing capital companies and proposals for further action.
The agency, with its current staff of 18, otherwise coordinates the drafting and implementation of the National Development Plan 2014-2020, which maps a path to an ‘Economic Breakthrough for the Greater Well-Being of Latvia!’ by the end of this period.
Previously the OECD has criticized Latvia for not being in compliance with its guidelines for the governance of its state-owned assets.
For those curious enough to actually peruse the full list of companies fully or partly owned by the Latvian state, it is available for view HERE (in Latvian) at the website of the PKC. Altogether eleven different ministries hold shares in these firms, as can be seen in the first table. The nine page-document also lists the subsidiary companies owned by those with state shares in a second table.
