NPP MP IN ¢400m CONTRACT BRAWLKMA accuses Kyei Mensah Bonsu of breaching Procurement Act
The Minority Leader and Member of Parliament (MP) for Old Suame, Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, has been indicted by an audit report of the Audit Service released in March this year.
The MP is alleged to have awarded a contract without the approval of the Assembly (Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly) Tender Committee.
The 60-page audit report has indicated that the MP for Suame instructed the Assembly to pay an amount of GH¢40,000 to Messrs Badu Adu Boahene Enterprise, to work on an abandoned Breman Community Clinic without documentation. Mr. Adu Boahene is the NPP constituency Chairman for Suame.
The report said the MP failed to adhere to the guidelines on the utilisation of the MPs' Common Fund, which requires MPs to make use of the Assembly's Tender Process and Works Department in the award of contracts.
The auditors expected that all projects by MPs are awarded through the Assembly's Tender Committee, in accordance with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act 663 of 2003, which the Minority Leader is said to have breached.
The scope of application of procurement structures under the Public Procurement Act, applies to the procurement of goods, works and services, financed in whole or in part from public funds, except where the Minister decides that it is in the national interest to use a different procedure; functions that pertain to procurement of goods, works and services, including the description of requirements and invitation of sources, preparation, selection and award of contract and the phases of contract.
It also applies to administration; the disposal of public stores and equipment; and procurement with funds or loans taken or guaranteed by the State and foreign aid funds, except where the applicable loan agreement, guarantee contract or foreign agreement provides the procedure for the use of the funds.
The Act 663 states that the head of an entity is responsible to ensure that provisions of this Act are complied with; and concurrent approval by any Tender Review Board shall not absolve the head of entity from accountability for a contract that may be determined to have been procured in a manner that is inconsistent with the provisions of this Act.
The Act also provides that each procurement entity shall establish a Tender Committee in the manner set as set out and that a Tender Committee shall ensure that at every stage of the procurement activity, procedures prescribed in the Act have been followed; exercise sound judgment in making procurement decisions; and refer to the appropriate Tender Review Board for approval, any procurement above its approval threshold, taking into consideration the fact that approval above the Entity Committee is a one stop only approval.
Each procurement entity shall appoint a tender evaluation panel with the required expertise to evaluate tenders and assist the Tender Committee in its work and that a tender evaluation panel shall proceed according to the predetermined and published evaluation criteria In the performance of its functions.
Sections of the Act also provide that a procurement entity shall prepare a procurement plan to support its approved programme and the plan shall indicate contract packages, estimated cost for each package, the procurement method, and processing steps and times and that a procurement entity shall submit to its Tender Committee not later than one month to the end of the financial year, the procurement plan for the following year for approval.
It is further stated that after budget approval, and at quarterly intervals after that, each procurement entity shall submit an update of the procurement plan to the Tender Committee, among others.