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Hailemariam Desalegn, social affairs advisor to the
Prime Minister with a ministerial portfolio, has
been appointed as the Board Chairman of the
Privatisation and Public Enterprises Supervisory
Agency (PPESA) following the resignation of Mekonnen
Manyazewal, state minister of Finance and Economic
Development, who held the post for the past five
years.
A letter Addisu Legesse, deputy Prime Minister and
minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, wrote
to the management of the Board two weeks ago
announced the appointment of Hailemariam and the
acceptance of the resignation request of Mekonnen
considering his alleged work overload.
Mekonnen was the second Board Chairman of the Agency
since the Privatisation Agency became an autonomous
establishment. The first Chairman, Assefa Abreha,
who has been languishing behind bars for the past
six years after recently being sentenced to nine
years imprisonment, was also the general manager of
one of PPESA's two mother institutions, the Public
Enterprises Supervisory Authority (PESA).
In 2004 the Privatisation Agency and PESA merged to
form PPESA. Until his resignation this month,
Mekonnen, who was Board Chairman of the
Privatisation Agency after the arrest of Assefa, has
been serving as the Board Chairman of PPESA.
Back in February 1994, the Privatisation Agency was
established to re-privatise over 220 enterprises
that were confiscated by the Derg military regime in
1975. Its other mandate was to screen and return
properties expropriated without proclamation to the
original owners.
Before the merger, PESA was responsible for the
administration of enterprises to be privatised in
the future. After some of the enterprises were
privatised or restored to their original owners,
PPESA currently administers 115 enterprises.
PPESA's Board makes the final decision on the fate
of the enterprises under it approving or rejecting
privatisation decisions of the management. The Board
also approves the budgets for each enterprise and
designs the working policies of the enterprises.
Current members of the Board include Beyene
Gebremeskel, general director of the Agency;
Alemseged Assefa, vice governor of the National Bank
of Ethiopia (NBE); Kassahun Follo, president of
Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions (CETU);
Sileshi Lemma from the Ministry of Trade and
Industry (MoTI); and Mesfin Lemma from the Prime
Minister's Office.
The new appointee, Hailemariam, was the president of
the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples
Regional State (SNNPRS) from 2003 to March 2006. He
wilfully ended his tenure following medical advice
he received from the Army Forces Hospital to work
only non-stress inducing jobs as he was found to be
suffering from hypertension. He was then appointed
as Social Affairs Advisor to the Prime Minister a
month after his resignation of the presidency.
Attending his primary and secondary education at his
birthplace in Wolayta Sodo, Hailemariam obtained his
first degree in Civil Engineering from Addis Abeba
University (AAU) and his second degree in Water
Technology abroad. Until the time he was made the
President of SNNPRS, he was dean and lecturer of the
former Arba Minch Water Technology Institute.
Hailemariam is also the chairman of Southern
Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Movement (SEPDM), one
of the four founding members of the Ethiopian
Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
"During Mekonnen's term, the Board has been giving
quick decisions, especially on enterprises that were
to be privatised," said one Board member of the
Agency. "Moreover, he was also better informed than
the rest of the Board and good at evaluating plans
of the enterprises."
Mekonnen is not a member of any board while
Hailemariam is the board chairman of the Maritime
and Transit Services Enterprise.
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