By
Joyce Danso, GNA
Accra Dec. 11, GNA –
Public and Private Entities who fail to keep proper records will be handed over
to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Attorney General for
prosecution, beginning next year.
Mr. Frank Mante,
Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), has
therefore advised entities to keep proper documentation for assessment by the
authority to avert their referral to the OSP and the Attorney General.
Mr. Mante who was
speaking at the 9th Annual Public Procurement Forum of the PPA held in Accra on
Wednesday entreated procurement officers to keep their records intact by
putting their houses in order.
The forum seeks to
brainstorm on how to move public procurement forward by strengthening
Procurement Units within entities.
The forum, which was
on the theme: “Functional Procurement Units: a Key to a sustainable Public
Procurement system,” would additionally seek views on the operations of public
procurement through the lenses of good governance.
The Acting PPA Boss
said the authority did not have powers to prosecute hence the referral to the
two institutions.
He said the PPA over
the past three years undertook a number of initiatives to enhance its
credibility citing the establishment of due diligence/ Value for money Unit,
Procurement Savings Unit, E-Government Procurement among others.
Mr Mante said for
example the past three years, the Authority saved the country over GHC 2.75
billion through the review of applications for both single source and
restrictive tendering procedures.
“Currently, the
Authority is embarking on site visits to some selected entities to interact
with them and provide Go-Live Support needed for on boarding the system soon.
Some contractors, service providers and consultants have also begun training on
the use of the GHANEPS for supplier registration and tender submission.”
He therefore urged
procurement officers to take advantage of the trainings in readiness for nationwide
e-procurement roll out.
Mr Mante further
said the PPA with effect from next year (2020) under the Public Financial
Management Reforms (PFMR) Project, would interface its Annual Procurement
Planning Tool with the Budget Preparation Tool to ensure that no entity would
be able to procure beyond what was budgeted.
He said the move was
to discourage adhoc purchases and ensure budget credibility.
On Capacity
building, Mr. Mante said the PPA would continue to encourage entities to
organise their service providers for training in order to build a strong supply
side for effective competition and guarantee better value for government
procurements.
He said the
Authority created a comprehensive supplier’s database, which would serve as a
one-stop-shop-database and this reduced the time, cost and convenience of doing
business with suppliers.
“Today, we have over
9,683 businesses registered on the system, which affords us with critical mass
of data required to strengthen out regulatory function,” he added
He cited the
inadequate Government of Ghana allocation to the PPA as a challenge in their
bid to carry out its regulatory functions per the Procurement Act.
Mr. Eric Victor
Asante, a Director in charge of Compliance, Monitoring and Evaluation, PPA took
the participants through an assessment of Authority’s data on some selected
entities on whether their procurement units were functional.
Mr Asante said the
PPA found out that 53 per cent of entities only had one procurement officer
noting that the practice was not proper.
GNA
