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President of the Ghana Institute of Procurement and Supply, Collins Sarpong, wants the government to review and improve the recognition given to procurement experts at public institutions.
Mr Sarpong notes for instance that procurement persons are given lower ranked appoints at public institutions, making them susceptible to being sidelined when the need for critical decisions arise.
“No Procurement Person is a director [of a public institution]. A procurement decision is taken at the highest level, it is brought down and it is carried out, money goes,” he said on PM Express on the Joy News channel on Tuesday.
Mr. Sarpong was reacting to recent revelations that the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) spent some $72 million in the procurement of an Operational Business Suite (OBS) when it could have procured a lower cost.
Also, a Joy News investigation that revealed that the Local Government Ministry procured waste bins for district assemblies when those it had ordered a year ago had not been distributed has also been blamed partly on poor procurement regime.
Mr. Sarpong notes that one of the effective ways to gag corruption that occurs through public procurement was for the government to institute and champion an effective public procurement regime.
“The only way an MP, a Minister or a DCE can take money from their outfit is through procurement...so if you leave procurement in limbo and the people are not [empowered] to say whatever, we will continue to have what we are having,” he said. |
