President of the Ghana Institute of Procurement and Supply, Simon Annan, has said the passage of the Procurement and Supply Bill into law.
According to him, having such a Bill in place will regulate procurement practice, and provide statutory authority for the operation of the Institute to facilitate constituency, standardization, and uniformity.
Reiterating the need to have the Bill backed by an Act of Parliament to regulate the practice of procurement in Ghana.
According to Mr Annan, the current procurement law (Act 663) does not make provision for the regulation of procurement professionals.
“Procurement professionals under the current law are not regulated, so we are not able to crack the whip when they indulge in procurement irregularities and take away their licenses if we wanted to.
“We feel irregularities in procurement which results in corruption in most cases will largely be resolved with the passage of the bill,” he quipped speaking during the NorvanReports, Economic Governance Platform and BudgIT Ghana X Space Discussion on the topic “Cutting Through The Red Tape: Ghana’s Procurement Makeover.”
Further asserting that the delay in the passage of the bill has been due to the lack of political will of successive governments.
“The passage of the bill will really be good for the Institute and so it’s something we are really pushing hard for,” he remarked, adding that peers such as South Africa and Kenya have already passed similar bills to regulate the activities of procurement professionals in their respective countries.
The proposed Bill, he argued, is not just about enhancing the credibility of procurement practices but also about safeguarding the integrity of public spending and combating corruption more effectively.
Ghana is estimated to lose close to $3 billion annually through corruption most of which are procurement related.
The annual Auditors-General report further highlights the billions of cedis lost through procurement irregularities and infractions in public institutions.
Source:norvanreports.com