Public Procurement Lacks Expertise
ADJENIM BOATENG Adjei, Chief Executive of the Public Procurement Authority, has noted that recent assessments conducted on procurement entities revealed an apparent shortfall of skillful procurement staff.
He however attributed the development to frequent movement of staff in the public sector and limited procurement professionals.
Addressing 40 participants at the opening of a two-day stakeholders' conference to discuss a Draft Curricula and Modules for Medium and Short-term Procurement training in Accra yesterday, Mr. Adjei mentioned that the situation contributed to the lapses in procurement activities, with negative effects on Ghana's quest to achieve best value for its limited resources at promoting fair competition, transparency and non-discriminatory public procurement process.
It is in this vein that a review of the procurement process has been adopted to help build a better system in the country, Africa and the world at large.
He called for swift action aimed at ensuring an effective implementation of the Public Procurement Act 663(2003) which accounts for about 80 percent of total expenditure after personnel emoluments.
“The afore-mentioned goes to confirm a need to build a pool of skilled persons in procurement to be engaged by entities for the relevant function.
It is expected that the modules and curricula which have been developed in close collaboration with the tertiary institutions will meet all requirements to facilitate its adoption,” Mr. Adjei said.
Dorothy Djokoto, Legal Counsel for the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), commended participants for their commitment, adding, “Your expert and critical advice to these draft curricula as educators is the final masterstroke which will enable these modules to be finalized and launched for the future of procurement training in Ghana.”
She indicated that the U.S government signed the Millennium Challenge Account Compact with Ghana in August 2006 to improve professional capacity in public procurement.
Its main objective is to strengthen public procurement capacity by assisting the development of training materials for staff of public entities, among others.
Meanwhile, Dr. Joyce Leech, Team leader and Senior Capacity Building Expert in Public Procurement told CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE that “the Ghanaian system of procurement is far advanced in terms of practical law and when fully implemented, it would go a long way to provide transparency in the use of public funds,” noting that it would also be a tool to open competition.
By Nathaniel Y.Yankson