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Government is committed to
strengthening capacity of procurement entities - Minister
Accra, Aug 21, Ghanadot/GNA – Mr.
Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance and Economic
Planning on Thursday said the government was committed to
strengthening of the capacity of procurement entities to
conduct procurement activities in an effective and efficient
manner.
In this regard, the Ministry of Finance and Economic
Planning was supporting the efforts of the Pubic Procurement
Authority (PPA) in their decentralisation process with the
intention of getting closer to the entities to enable the
Authority to closely and effectively monitor procurement
activities at the local levels.
Mr Baah-Wiredu said this when he addressed the third public
forum of the PPA in Accra with the theme: “Effective and
Efficient Monitoring of Public Procurement for Sustainable
National Development”.
The Minister said the effective performance of the country’s
procurement systems and practices would therefore determine
the quantum of development needs namely roads, schools,
hospitals, rail lines and support to private sector among
others that could be provided within a particular financial
year.
He said; “Suffice it to say that if tax payer’s funds and
efforts are ‘wasted’ through indiscriminate and inefficient
procurement processes and practices, and the tax collectors
effort to collect taxes are wasted through the same means,
the nation’s effort of resource mobilisation for national
development is undermined.
Mr Baah-Wiredu said the ability of government to meet its
economic and social development aspirations were thus
closely related to how well procurement was carried out.
“It is against this backdrop that government has since the
1990s embarked on a number of initiatives to reform the
public procurement system as a key component of public
financial management reforms.
He said the passage of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act
663) and the establishment of the PPA set the tone for a
massive take-off of effective procurement management in
Ghana.
“Government, through the PPA, has since not relented in
efforts to make the reforms work. In fact, the Ministry will
continue to support initiatives of the PPA aimed at ensuring
that public procurement is conducted with due attention to
economy, efficiency and value for money.
“Public procurement has indeed been described as a business
process within a political system, where the roles of all
players in the process need to be recognised and properly
balanced. In particular, the part played by public
procurement entities, implementers of government procurement
programmes is very much appreciated.”
Mr Baah-Wiredu announced that consultations were far
advanced for the PPA to establish five zonal offices which
would be located in Accra, Sekondi-Takoradi, Koforidua,
Kumasi and Tamale, adding that, ultimately it was proposed
that PPA would have offices in all the 10 regions of Ghana.
He expressed the hope that the PPA would continue to
implement initiatives to ensure continuous improvement in
the performance levels of the entities, stressing that, that
was the only way to ensure maximum value for taxpayers’
money and enhancement of resource mobilisation.
He urged the public procurement entities, which were the
implementers of the Act, to collaborate closely with the PPA
and avail themselves of the numerous opportunities that the
Authority puts across from time to time to develop
institutional capacity for procurement.
“This is the surest means of enhancing your performance
levels and ensuring better accountability of the state’s
resources.”
The Minister asked the PPA to consider in their future forum
the issue of sustainable procurement looking critically at
sustainable source of supply, appropriate disposal of items,
and impact of procurement on the environment among others.
Mr Adjemin Boateng Adjei, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of
PPA said the establishment of the Appeals and Complaints
Panel of the Authority in February 2007 has had a positive
impact on the success of the implementation process of Act
663.
He said a number of suppliers and contractors have had
occasions to use the appeals process to lodge complaints on
tenders they had participated in and felt the entities
concerned had inappropriately acted against their
submissions.
The CEO emphasised that the Appeals and Complaints process
has enhanced transparency in the procurement system, adding
that tenderers now feel more empowered to readily seek
administrative review of procurement complaints, without
fear of victimisation in future tenders.
He said out of 29 cases considered by the Panel, 14 have
been successfully concluded with decisions accordingly
communicated to the parties and the remaining 15 cases were
still under consideration.
GNA
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