Andre Coetzee, representative of Cormmerce Edge (left) and CEO of PPA, AB Adjei (right) signing the MoU
The Procurement Authority (PPA) has announced the introduction of a comprehensive certification and licensing programme to effectively manage all public procurement practitioners in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PPA, AB Adjei, disclosed this on Friday in Accra during the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the PPA and Commerce Edge, South Africa (CESA).
Mr. Adjei pointed out that the collaboration is geared towards strengthening the operation of the Section 3 (K) of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) that enjoins the PPA to ensure policy implementation and human resource development.
It is to develop, promote and support training and professional development of persons engaged in public procurement, as well as ensure adherence to ethical standards by the trained persons.
According to him, the collaboration with CESA would be based on a broad perspective of supply chain management.
“Procurement is certainly a major component of the chain of activities within the supply chain framework, but we will be unable to attain the full benefits of its functionality until we align it with other quality essential components of the supply chain namely stores and inventory control, transport and distribution, production planning and contract management,” he added.
Mr. Adjei also stressed that PPA has made major inroads in developing the capacity of procurement practitioners in the country.
“Our medium term training of procurement functionaries, which has yielded significant gains with our training reaching over 20,000 trainees in the last 12 years,” he added.
The Minister for Public Procurement Adwoa Safo indicated that her outfit is also currently working in collaboration with the PPA to ascertain the performance and financial capabilities of all contractors, suppliers and service providers.
This will constitute a data for suppliers and contractors to ensure value for money and accountability, integrity and transparency
“To achieve ‘Ghana Beyond Aid,’ we need to strengthen our public procurement system in order to check corruption and to attain value for money; this action is very necessary,” she added.
MoU
The MoU shall include the development of a formal local supply chain qualification for Ghana, certification of local practitioners, work based integration programmes, integration of online platforms, procurement and supply competency assessment tools, short courses, publication of procurement journals and the organisation of an annual West Africa procurement and enterprise development summit.
Mr. Adjei hinted that in achieving of the key deliverables, PPA will involve the three recognised procurement and supply chain professional bodies which include the Charted Institute of Supply Chain Management (CISCM), Charted Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) and Ghana Institute of Procurement and Supply (GIPS).
He added that the three institutions would be strongly represented in all committees and sub-committee of Certification and Competency assessment programmes.