ISLAMABAD, May 6: The Federal Finance Minister, Mr Shaukat Aziz, stressing the need of making the public sector companies imbibe transparency and accountability , declared here Thursday that time is now ripe to extend corporate governance code to these and other non-listed companies.

He was speaking at a seminar on "Corporate Governance Beyond Listed Companies" organized by the Securities and Exchange Commission and attended by over 100 executives of non-listed and listed entities of corporate sector.

Good governance, he said was even more important in public sector enterprises than the private sector because the former did not compete in traditional way, nor was their performance driven by considerations such as market share, industry benchmarks or share value.

Noting that some of these enterprises had adopted features resembling private sector entities and started declaring dividend for the first time, he said their executives still acted in such a way as to pander to the senior bureaucracy.

Public sector companies take decisions that affect the economic as well as social well-being of the country. They oversee the delivery of critical services to the public.

All public sector organizations should be transparent, responsive and accountable for their activities, he remarked, stressing that the public was entitled to know whether public resources were being used in an efficient way and clear reports of performance were important for creating pressure for improvement.