Balczun: Supervisory boards of State Treasury companies must be diverse

The Ministry of State Assets is testing new recommendations regarding the composition of supervisory boards in 24 large State Treasury companies. The introduction of competence standards in companies with State Treasury participation is one of the priorities of the ministry; we need diverse teams, said Wojciech Balczun, head of MAP.

As MAP reported on Thursday, one of the priority projects currently being implemented in the ministry is the development and implementation of the so-called Competence Matrix – an auxiliary tool for assessing the competences of a candidate for a member of the supervisory body of a State Treasury company.

The Ministry explained that the Matrix of Competences (MK) is being created as part of activities aimed at standardizing corporate governance in companies with State Treasury participation. The MK contains recommendations on shaping the composition of supervisory bodies of State Treasury companies.

“In the second part of the government's term of office, we presented three key priorities, one of which is the introduction of competence standards in companies with State Treasury participation. We have prepared a number of regulations, a code of good practices and competence matrices, which have already been adopted by the Ministry of State Assets,” said Wojciech Balczun, Minister of State Assets.

As he said, the “real key” to better supervision is the competence and “proper arrangement of supervisory boards.” “We cannot have boards composed only of lawyers. We need diverse teams: a lawyer, an industry expert, a finance expert, an economist. Therefore, as part of our competence matrices, we will filter all members of supervisory boards in State Treasury companies,” Balczun announced.

The Ministry indicated that the purpose of implementing the Competence Matrix is ​​to ensure proper assessment of the competences of: a candidate for a member of the supervisory body of a State Treasury company, individual members of the supervisory board, and the entire supervisory body in selected State Treasury companies.

The Ministry emphasized that this solution, already used by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority and large private companies, allows for better matching of competences to the needs of supervised entities.

MAP added that from October 1 this year. introduced a new self-assessment form. “This document contains a set of 15 competencies important in the context of ensuring substantive supervision over a State Treasury company and is used to verify the competences of a candidate for a member of the supervisory body. Completed Self-Assessment Forms will enable comparison of the knowledge, skills and experience of candidates for the positions of members of supervisory bodies of State Treasury companies,” the ministry said.

He added that work is currently underway to implement the Competence Matrix for a pilot group of 24 largest State Treasury companies. (PAP)

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