Ghanaian public and private businesses will continue to lose out on the benefits of an effective procurement system if standards are not improved immediately.
That’s according to the Director of Compliance, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Public Procurement Authority(PPA) Eric Appiah.
He was speaking at a Procurement Masterclass Workshop organized by the Ghana-Israel Business Chamber here in Accra.
The 2 day Procurement Masterclass Workshop was put together by the Ghana Israel Business Chamber in partnership with the World Bank and other stakeholders.
The programme sought to show the World Bank and Government of Ghana procurement practices in both the public and private sector, with special emphasis on procurement systems and procedures, ethics and transparency in procurement among others.
In an interview with Citi Business News after his lecture at the workshop, the Director of Compliance, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Public Procurement Authority Eric Appiah called on Ghanaian businesses to improve their procurement skillset in order not to lose out on business opportunities to foreign companies in the country.
“If we look at the foreigners, when they are tendering it is taken as a very serious business. So they bring in the full complement of people needed to make their tender and above. They will have an engineer that will understand the design, someone who understands the quantities involved, they will bring another person who is into the costing. But here in Ghana, one person would play all these roles. And that isn’t always the best. Our local firms need to reach out and engage the professional institutions for help in order to be better prepared to win more contract.”
Some stakeholders in the business community including the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) have in recent times called for a change of the country’s procurement system to ensure that multiple businesses are given a chance to share in huge government contracts as against the situation where one company wins and executes huge government contracts.
For the Head of Israel’s Trade and Economic Mission to Ghana and West Africa, Ayelet Karp, with an improvement in procurement standards in the country.
“Procurement is a science, which requires a lot of detail orientation. A lot of opportunities can be missed if good procurement standards are not given the needed attention. For a country like Ghana it is important to ensure that procurement officers always link procurement to their end goal,” he said.
He stated for example that, “instead of procuring any consignment of seeds for farming, procurement officers should procure the best seeds at the best cost with a goal of ultimately improving harvest.
“In the health sector, procurement of facilities should be done with the goal of improving general wellbeing of the people. That paradigm shift is key for any country or entity involved in procurement,” he said.
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By: Bobbie Osei/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana