OECD praises Ghana's procurement policy

Business page (lead) August 29/2008

Story; Charles Benoni Okine

Ghana’s achievements in the implementation of the Procurement Act as a tool for checking corruption in the country have been recognised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development- Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) of the World Bank.
In May 2006, the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) successfully launched its Public Procurement Monitoring and Evaluation (PPME) assessment tool, strategically designed to capture qualitative and quantitative data that is used in measuring performance and compliance levels of entities as prescribed by the Public Procurement Act of 2003 (Act 663).
Last year, there was a joint assessment team by the World Bank, which used the OECD-DAC methodology to assess Ghana's performance and compliance out of which Ghana scored a record 70 per cent.
The team also validated the use of PPA's PPME tool to ascertain the degree of conformity with the OECD methodology and the record has been regarded as unprecedented in the world of public procurement reforms.
It was a result of the quality and practicability of this tool in determining the performance and compliance of entities for the effective implementation of Ghana's Public Procurement Law that PPA's Chief Executive Officer had been invited as a Guest Speaker to share with the rest of the world the strides Ghana was making in the area of public procurement.
Mr A.B. Adjei has been nominated by the OECD to share Ghana's experiences and progress in PPME at the 3rd International Conference on Good Governance scheduled for Asuncion, Paraguay, South America, on September 2, 2008.
The PPA, for its part, has hosted public procurement regulatory organisations across Africa, including the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority, Tanzania and the Zambian Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
The Liberian Public Procurement Authority has also been billed to be on a one-week study tour to PPA in September, 2008.