Dr. Samuel Ankrah, an investment banker, has called for a body that is completely autonomous from any government to deal with the country’s procurement processes.
According to him, such a body will prevent the government from interfering with the procurement processes which often result in the loss of billions of Ghana cedis.
In an interview, Dr Ankrah, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of GAM-ANK Group, said: “We should have a body which chief executive and key appointees are taken off the mandate of the government.”
His call comes at a time when there is public outcry at the rate at which non-emergency government projects are being undertaken with procurements taken through sole/single sourcing.
Dr Ankrah, however, noted that the award of contracts through sole/single sourcing under the Procurement Act should not be misconstrued as a bad idea.
“It is essentially not a bad thing if key strategic infrastructure projects on the priority list of the government are to be implemented quickly and on time,” he said.
Dr. Ankrah stated that as much as this was being done, the law was being blatantly abused in many instances, a practice which must stop to save funds.
He further reiterated that an autonomous body would be the way forward if governments were to be prevented from abusing the system.
President on sole/single sourcing
At a news conference in Accra, President John Mahama explained in reaction to a question on sole sourcing that many of the funding sourced from development partners came with its own conditions, including where materials for projects are to be sourced.
According to the President, the nature of procurement is normally attached to the agreement and when that occurs, there is little the government can do to take the process through the tendering process as required by the Procurement Act.
He, however, noted that those that were funded by the government were often taken through the process.
Abuse of procurement system
Unfavourable practices in the public procurement process, including the flagrant abuse of single-source contracts, are undermining the relevance of the process as a tool for national development and a level playing field in contract biddings.
Public procurement is the process by which the taxpayer’s money is used to purchase goods and services for use by and for the state, in a manner that promotes domestic capacity and innovation among sellers.
It has been estimated that about US$400 billion per annum changes hands through corruption in public procurement around the world — that for Africa is US$127 billion, more than the combined donor aid received from Europe, America and Asia.
In sub-Saharan Africa, it is reported that corruption exists in about 70 per cent of public contracts, which inevitably lead to a rise of 20-30 per cent in contract sums.
Many studies on the country’s procurement system have identified low capacity of procurement professionals, low interaction between procurement entities and Public.
Procurement Authority (PPA), deliberate controlling of competition, non-compliance with provisions of the law, splitting of contracts into smaller lots, lack of funds and non-cooperativeness of suppliers as the major challenges militating against the implementation of the Public Procurement Law in Ghana.
This, they believe, is giving room for some unscrupulous persons to milk the state of billions of Ghana cedis per annum.
More suggestions
Dr. Ankrah said the competency required within the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) must extend to its ability to understand a good competitive financing package, even if it is on an unsolicited bid basis.
This, he said, was necessary in order not to undermine the expediency provided by an unsolicited bid.
Similarly, he noted that the skills must be expounded to accelerate the procurement process without compromising the integrity of the process.
“The current position of rubber-stamping almost everything is not the best, sole sourcing has been abused in most cases. I think we should look more into contracting the services of experts in various field on these acts of procurement, with transaction advisers, mainly investment bankers, to support and look into these tenders,” Dr Ankrah added.
Source: Graphic