Dr. Ishmael Yamson (6th right), Collins Agyemang, President of the Ghana Institute of Procurement and Supply (5th right) in a pose with the inductees
Chairman of Mantrac Ghana Limited, Dr. Ishmael Yamson, has called for an end to the appointment of procurement officers for ministries, institutions, departments and agencies solely on partisan basis.
Dr. Yamson made the call on Thursday, November 29, 2018 in Accra during the induction of eight new members of the Ghana Institute of Procurement and Supply under the theme, ‘Developing Ethically Upright Procurement & Supply Professionals for Nation’s Building.’
“The president must not necessarily appoint all government procurement officers from his party but try to engage independent players to ensure that competent persons are hired as procurement officers for the state,” he said.
“I am saying that the people who will be appointed to manage their procurement should not necessarily be political appointees.”
“It will be a big risk for the president to single-handedly appoint all procurement officers in the country.
He said it would serve the best interest of the ruling party and the state at large to appoint procurement officers who are not necessarily faithful of the ruling party.
Focus On Value Creation
He stressed the need for the current procurement law to be reviewed to ensure the prevention of waste, corruption, value creation and addition in state entities.
According to him, “I think the process needs to be relooked. I think the whole basis of the law is about ensuring that there is no corruption in the process of procuring either goods or services in the public sector.”
Dr. Yamson explained that “but my view is that in business, procurement is not only about preventing waste; it’s about creating value. You use procurement to create competitive advantage, because if you can buy faster, you can buy more cheaply, you can buy more intelligently, then you stand a better chance of being a least cost producer and therefore become more competitive.”
He stressed that “so there are two ways that we should look at the procurement law. If you focus too much on preventing corruption, yes you will but then you are leaving a huge part of the value creation side which is then missing completely.”
By Melvin Tarlue