Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on Tuesday launched Ghana’s Electronic Procurement System (GHANEPS) in Accra for the public sector.
This forms part of government’s multi-pronged approaches to digitizing the economy and ensuring transparency, as well as timeliness in all public sector transactions.
In an address, Dr Bawumia stated: “As a government, we are fully committed to improving transparency and efficiency in the procurement process. With this end-to-end modular e-Procurement system and its integration with other government systems – such as Register General’s Department, Ghana Revenue Authority, Ghana E-Payment Portal, etc., and eventually with GIFMIS- we get closer to this objective.”
He added that the e-Procurement system was established to help tackle corruption in procurement processes by minimising human interaction and increasing productivity for both procurement officers and service providers as all manual procurement process and procedures get automated.
He also said service providers, including suppliers, consultants and contractors, would use the internet to respond to tenders, seek clarifications and other information since the time and risks associated with tender submissions would be considerably reduced and/or eliminated.
Additionally, he said there would be significant reduction in the use of paper during tendering and more ease in monitoring and audit, among others.
Phase 1 of the e-Procurement system has begun with five government agencies – Department of Feeder Roads, Ghana Cocoa Board, Ghana Health Service, Koforidua Technical University and Tema Metropolitan Assembly.
Phase II covers all 34 Ministries, Public Universities, Metropolitan Assemblies and some selected Departments and Agencies and is expected to start at the end of June 2019.
The roll out would continue until the end of 2020 during which all public entities would be expected to use the e-Procurement system for their procurement activities.
In line with international best practice, Ghana’s e-Procurement system uses the Open Contracting Data Standards (OCDS) for its reporting and display of information.
“The use of tender boxes will be history. Now your computer is your tender box. Civil societies and for that matter the general public would no longer have to go to public entities requesting information on its procurement activities… The e-Procurement system is another step aimed at curbing the canker of corruption in our public procurement processes.”
According to the Country Director of the World Bank, Henry Kerali, Ghana could save up to $100 million annually from e-Procurement.