Low remuneration dissuading professionals from taking jobs at Public Procurement Authority
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Mr Agyenim Boateng Adjei says despite the enormity of responsibilities placed on the Authority, remuneration for employees is so low that professionals with requisite expertise to work there, are not attracted to take up jobs with the Authority.
He indicated that the situation has resulted in high staff turnover and staff retention has become much difficult under the current circumstances. .
Mr Boateng Adjei was speaking at a press briefing during an unveiling of the new outlook of the PPA.
“The morale of staff is at its lowest level and most of the trained staff are disillusioned. The irony of PPA’s situation is that, staff in similar Regulatory Institutions are so well enumerated for the work they do,” he noted.
He added, “If personnel of such an institution with an oversight responsibility to supervise the conduct of procurement within the entire public sector are so poorly paid, I cannot imagine the zeal they could muster to diligently carry out their mandate.”
Additionally, with lack of funding for programmes and constant delays associated with fund releases even where prior approval had been secured, the Authority has had to depend on donor funds to run most of its programmes within the dictates of the terms and pace of donors.
This, he said may be because the Authority does not internally generate funds and as a result it has introduced a revenue mobilization strategy that will go a long way to support the activities of the Authority.
The Authority will charge Sole Sourcing and Restricted Tendering application fees (SSRT Fees), Fines for Ratification to conduct investigations on applications for ratification regarding procurement which has been undertaken without prior approval by the Board.
Adding to that, all Tender Notice Posting on the Authority’s website will attract a fee.
The PPA will also charge facilitation fees when it provides general and customized training for procuring entities to build their capacities.
Mr Agyenim Boateng Adjei was appointed by President Nana Akufo-Addo earlier this month as the CEO of PPA and was said to have served in the same capacity from 2005 to 2010.
The PPA was established by the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) as a body corporate, charged with the responsibility of overseeing the effective implementation of the Act. It is mandated to regulate, assess and ensure full compliance by entities to all the provisions of the provisions of the Act. PPA does not undertake procurement on behalf of entities but rather seeks to build their capacities to enable effective implementation of the Act.
By Pamela Ofori-Boateng
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