Procurement officers urged to collaborate to alleviate corruption at MMDAs
Ms Yvonne Vanderpuye, Head of Human Resource and Administration, at the Local Government Service, has advised procurement officers to collaborate with Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives, Coordinating Directors and spending officers to alleviate corruption at the assemblies.
She emphasised that the collaboration was necessary because procurement officers would be held responsible in any lapse in procurement processes at the assemblies.
Ms Vanderpuye warned that any procurement officer who would flout the procurement law would be liable to a jail term not exceeding five years imprisonment, or GHC20,000 fine or both.
She gave the advice at the opening session of a three-day workshop for newly employed procurement officers at Abesim, near Sunyani on Tuesday.
It is being organised by the Public Procurement Authority in collaboration with Local Government Service and attended by 60 procurement officers drawn from Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Brong-Ahafo and Ashanti Regions.
Ms Vanderpuye noted that public procurement was an area flooded with corruption, adding that, without effective collaboration with all stakeholders, including contractors and suppliers, the procurement law would not always be applied in public expenditure process.
She explained that public procurement had both economic and social impact as it accounted for 50-70 per cent of the national budget, 14 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product and 24 per cent of total imports.
Ms Vanderpuye admitted that though the procurement law had some basic challenges, it did not mean procurement officers should capitalize on those lapses and go contrary to the laws in procurement management practices.
Dr Charles Kessey, Director, Research, Statistics and Information Management of the Local Government Service, explained that the workshop was necessary since it would expose participants to the Procurement Act.
He said it would also build their capacities to enable them to help the assemblies to generate enough fund internally for development.
Dr Kessey was optimistic that by the close of the workshop, participants would appreciate the reform process that led to the enactment of Act 663 and understand in detail, the importance of public procurement as a strategic value-adding activity.
Source: GNA
The workshop on how to prevent corruption in public procurement is laudable. I believe that another way is by employing qualified procurement practitioners to handle the position of procurement officers in the various public institutions. Knust and other Institutions are providing training to many in this regard. It is hoped that the Metropolitan, Municipal and the District Assemblies would take advantage of these trained professional by employing them. Lastly, there should be an established association of procurement practitioners that would govern the procurement practice as in other professions such as GJA, GBA,etc.