Government plans to strengthen the capacity of Entity Tender Committees for the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies to make them better at pursuing procurement-related corruption.<\/p>\n
The Minister for Procurement, Sarah Adwoa Safo"},"modified":"2019-07-15T07:16:36","modified_gmt":"2019-07-15T07:16:36","slug":"govt-moves-to-strengthen-tender-committees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/07\/15\/govt-moves-to-strengthen-tender-committees\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov’t moves to strengthen Tender Committees"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
Government plans to strengthen the capacity of Entity Tender Committees for the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies to make them better at pursuing procurement-related corruption.<\/p>\n
The Minister for Procurement, Sarah Adwoa Safo maintains the move will make corruption a disincentive and protect the public purse.<\/p>\n
According to her, the failure by some state institutions to create and ensure that the various Entity Tender Committees perform their work satisfactorily could be blamed for the various corrupt cases witnessed in public procurement.<\/p>\n
She, however, told Citi News<\/strong> the situation will be reversed with the action plan outlined by her outfit.<\/p>\n \u201cWe intend to get all the entity tender committee members to train them. Not all members who are put on the entity tender committee really understand what they are ought to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Madam Safo also said these move will be in line with ensuring the country has strong institutions.<\/p>\n \u201cThe law is not the issue. We were the first to pass the Procurement Act in the West African sub-region. We\u2019ve always been the pacesetters.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe laws are there. How do we make them work\u2026 we should make corruption, collusion and fraud in procurement a high-risk activity so that people will know that I venture, these are the consequences,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Public Procurement Authority has in the past noted that over 70% of public institutions in Ghana fail to comply with the Public Procurement Law which mandates entities to submit a procurement plan.<\/p>\n Other observers estimate that procurement breaches make up close to 90% of corruption cases.<\/p>\n In line with this, Ghana became the first country in the West African sub-region to establish an electronic procurement system for the public sector back in April.<\/p>\n It is hoped the adoption of e-procurement could save the country up to 2% of its GDP, amounting to $100 million annually.<\/p>\n Phase 1 of the e-procurement system begun with five government agencies: the Department of Feeder Roads, Ghana Cocoa Board, Ghana Health Service, Koforidua Technical University and Tema Metropolitan Assembly.<\/p>\n Phase II will cover all 34 Ministries, Public Universities, Metropolitan Assemblies and some selected Departments and Agencies, expected to have started at the end of June 2019.<\/p>\n\n
\n