SAVOI, Donald J

La gouvernance des societes d`Etat au gouvernement federal : un bilan - 2001

Governance has recentely become a priority in federal Crown corporations. Crow corporations have been able to borrow form recent private-sector efforts to strengthen their governance practices. Still, there are important differences between the two sectors and this article reports on them. Crown corporations have to deal with a more complex accountability process an with many more decision-making and consultation centres than to private forms. There have been a number of important documents on corporate governance in public enterprises produced recently by practitioners and think-tanks that provide insight s and recommendations on how to strengthen governance in Crow corporations. The government of Canada issued in 1996 guidelines, "Corporate Governance in Crown Croporations and Other Public Enterprises." This article reports in some detail on the contents of these guidelines and how Crown corporations have responded to them. A questionnaire was sent to all the chairs and president-ceos of deferal Crown corporations asking them to report on recent changes in their ogvernance approach. The survey revealed that there are a number of Crown corporations that have introduced important changes to their governance practices. This article reports on these cjanges. Some of the changes are as ambitious and as sweeping as any corporate governance changes introduced by private firms. The article concludes with a number of observations and suggestions on how to strengthen further corporate governance in federal Crown corporations