Sarah Adwoa Safo
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.
The Minister for Procurement, Sarah Adwoa Safo, has said the move will make corruption a disincentive and protect the public purse.
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.
She, however, told Citi News that the situation would be reversed with the action plan outlined by her outfit.
“We 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,” she said.
Ms Safo also said the move would be in line with ensuring the country has strong institutions.
“The law is not the issue. We were the first to pass the Procurement Act in the West African sub-region. We’ve always been the pacesetters.
“The laws are there. How do we make them work … we should make corruption, collusion and fraud in procurement a high-risk activity so that people will know that when I venture, these are the consequences,” she said.
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.
Other observers estimate that procurement breaches make up close to 90% of corruption cases.
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 2019.
It is hoped the adoption of e-procurement could save the country up to 2% of its GDP, amounting to $100 million annually.
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.
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.
-citinewsroom.com