Discipline needed in public sector procurement

Accra, Nov. 7, GNA - Mr Kwasi Addae-Donkor, Director-General for Supply, Stores and Drug Management of the Ghana Health Services, on Monday called for discipline and more accuracy in procurement procedures within the public sector.

This is because procurement formed about 70 to 80 percent of the government's budget for the public sector.

Mr Addae-Donkor said this when he addressed a day's seminar on new procurement procedures for the public sector on Monday in Accra. Over 20 participants from all over the country attended the seminar, which was organized by the management of the Pantang Psychiatric Hospital for the hospital's suppliers. Mr Addae-Donkor noted that one area in the public sector that was noted for corruption and fund mismanagement was that of procurement, which resulted in a lot of waste.

He said this resulted in a lot of mistrust on the part of suppliers, with some believing that people indulged in all kinds of manipulation to wrongfully award contracts. He said it was important to abide by the Procurement Act as it provided the right guidelines on procurement and also sought to punish wrongdoing.

He said with the promulgation of the Act, there was the need for all stakeholders to ensure that they did not contravene it. Participants are to be enlightened on procedures that they would have to go through for procurement.

The programme was chaired by Mr Charles Adjei, Administrator, Pantang Psychiatric Hospital.

The Public Procurement Act, which was passed in 2003 by Parliament, seeks among other things to eliminate corruption and waste in procurement within the public sector.