Public Corporate Governance Codes: Necessary but Successful too?

Abstract

The formulation of Public Corporate Governance Codes has become popular in the last few years. But there are some shortcomings. First the variety of Codes makes comparisons difficult or even impossible. Secondly, many Codes state the necessity of steering by the government as the owner of Government Owned Enterprises (GOE) but do not mention the steering process explicitly. Another problem seems to be the qualification of the board members of the GOE together with the handling of conflicting interests. Quite often the considerations on the evaluation of the Code are somewhat imprecise.