Het belang van staatsdeelnemingen: Een onderzoek naar het realiseren van publieke belangen door staatsdeelnemingen

Abstract

State participations have the task of realizing or guaranteeing national policy objectives. they are therefore of great value to the prosperity and well-being of The Netherlands. The dissertation focuses on the question of whether state participations realize their public tasks and which factors play a role in this. Bases on four criteria (efficiency, effectiveness, quality and legitimacy/trust) Smits investigated whether three large state owned enterprises (Schiphol, Gasunie and NS) are achieving their public objectives. The research shows that two factors are very decisive: internal governance (Supervisory Board and executive Board) and external governance (state owned enterprise, policy department and ministry of Finance). If both these factors are not properly addressed, the other factors will also not be sufficiently addressed. Without well-functioning internal and external governance, no strategy can be developed with support from all relevant parties and there will be no effective stakeholderapproach-for example in the relationship with local residents , shareholders, municipalities and provinces, sectors and customers. In his research Smits also shows that the proper functioning and safeguarding of governance of state owned enterprises is a 'profession in itself'. He therefore proposes to introduce a separate Public Governance Code for state participations. This could include for example: an extensive assessment of candidates for the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board, a clear description of views on the role and tasks of the three actors: ministry of Finance, policy department and the state owned enterprise, the establishment of a separate committee of 'public output tartgets' of the Supervisory Board, reports on public output targets and consultation with the most importante stakeholders. In addition Smits propose to draw up an agreement for state participations: a contract between the ministry of Finance, the relevant policy ministry and the ste owned enterprise for a long period (fifteen to twenty years). This contract should also lay out the intended public output targets that the state owned enterprise must achieve Inthis way, state participations cab successfully tackle current and future major social issues in an innovative, decisive way and through efficient implementation.