GTZ boosts procurement capacity of seven institutions

Back page (Daily Graphic) December 13/2008

Story: Charles Benoni Okine

THE Public Procurement Authority (PPA) has received $1.5 million from the German Development Co-operation (GTZ) to develop the capacities of seven major institutions in the procurement process.
They are the Judicial Service, Attorney General’s Office, Ghana Audit Service, Internal Audit Agency, the Serious Fraud Office, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Ghana Police Service.
An agreement for the release of the funds was signed yesterday between the Chief Executive Officer of the PPA, Mr Adjenim Boateng Adjei, and the Country Director of GTZ, Mr Fred Brandl, at a short ceremony in Accra.
Mr Adjei said part of the money would also be used to organise workshops for members of parliament, civil society organisations, the media and the general public.
In 2005, the PPA launched its capacity development paper in line with its strategic plan to facilitate capacity building for the various stakeholders in the public procurement process under short, medium and long term training programmes.
The move was aimed, among other things, at ensuring that the Public Procurement Act which was promulgated in 2003 as a major corruption fighting tool was carried out in a more transparent, fair and non-discriminatory manner.
“With procurement accounting for about two-thirds of public expenditure, apart from personnel emoluments, every effort has been made over the period to ensure that stakeholders receive the necessary training to ensure that the Act is effectively implemented”, Mr Adjei said.
He said a training programme with funds from the government and DFID was started in September, 2007 and since then 8,400 participants in the 10 regions had benefited.
Mr Adjei regretted that in spite of the good intention of the training programmes, limited funding made it impossible, in the face of the wide scope of participation and the process of training the anticipated 20,000 persons.
He said the PPA would organise a mop-up training programme for procurement practitioners and members of Entity Tender Committees/Tender Review Boards (TRBs) who could not benefit from the first phase of the short term training programme.
Mr Adjei said the GTZ had also made available some €60,000 for the establishment of five zonal offices to ensure the presence of the authority at the local level to facilitate training and monitoring of public procurement activities at the regional and district levels.
He said the zonal offices would be based in Koforidua to cater for the Eastern and Volta regions, Takoradi for Central and Western regions, Tamale for Northern/Upper East and Upper West regions, Kumasi for the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions and Accra for the Greater Accra Region.
Mr Adjei commended the GTZ for the support and gave the assurance that the funds would be used for the intended purpose to strengthen the procurement process.
For his part, Mr Brandl stressed the importance of financial governance in the country, and praised Ghana for the steps it had taken to ensure transparency in government expenditure.