Workshop on procurement management in Takoradi

A three-day capacity building workshop for members of the Western Regional Co-ordinating Council on the implementation of the procurement law, opened in Takoradi on Wednesday.

The workshop, being organised by the Local Government Service, attracted Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief executives, Co-ordinating directors, Budget, Finance and Planning Officers.

Ms Betty Bosomtwi-Sam, Deputy Regional Minister, who opened the workshop, asked public officials to avoid corrupt practices and encouraged transparency and accountability in their work to enable government to use the country’s resources judiciously for development.

She urged the participants to take the workshop seriously to enable them to work in line with the procurement law.

Mr Akwasi Oppong Fosu, Head of the Local Government Service, said when the Legislative Instrument 1961 is passed by Parliament, the Local Government Service would be separated from the Civil Service.

He said departments which used to be central agencies would be part of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies to strengthen the decentralisation process.

Mr Fosu said 33,000 out of the 43,000 personnel of the central agencies would be transferred to the Local Government Service which would include regional
co-ordinating councils.

He said the civil service would be made up of the ministries, which would formulate policies while the Local Government Service would implement them.

Nana Asiedu-Kotwi, Principal Operations Officer of the Public Procurement Authority, said the authority had embarked on training programmes to build the capacities of personnel of various organisations engaged in the procurement chain.

He said so far, those who have benefited from the training programmes, which aimed at promoting cautious use of state resources included judges, internal auditors and personnel of the Accountant-General Department and Serious Fraud Office.

Nana Asiedu-Kotwi observed that the capacity to implement the procurement law has been low since its passage, hence the need for the workshop to ensure the effective implementation of the law.

Source: GNA