Board Chairman of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Professor Christopher Ameyaw Akumfi, has pledged his determination to block loopholes and halt the cutting of corners in Ghana’s public procurement sector.
The new Board, he said, is going to work hard and with the law to ensure the public purse is indeed protected as promised by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
“I can assure his excellency the President that we are going to work with the law and order and ensure that shortcuts will be done away with,” he stated.
Speaking after the swearing-in of members of the new Board, Prof. Ameyaw Akumfi stated that the Board is aware of the sensitivity of procurement in Ghana.
The Auditor-General’s report, he said, is always replete with all manner of activities in the area of procurement and added that President Akufo-Addo has indicated his determination to protect the public purse.
“In doing so it is essential that we always procure goods and services with one aim in mind – value for money,“ he said and added that prior to 2003 procurement was a bit haphazard.
“I remember I sat in my office with a book and listed names of those that the ministry was going to engage in reprinting of textbooks because at that time there was no Act, there was no law.”
“The first procurement act was soon promulgated in 2003 and then amended in 2013 to ensure sanity in the procurement of goods and services by public institutions,” he said.
Prof Ameyaw, who is contesting the position of NPP National Chairman in the impending delegates’ conference expressed gratitude to President Akufo-Addo for identifying the Board members as Ghanaians who can live up to his expectation and pledged to satisfy that expectation.
Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr. John Kuma, in his remarks charged the new Board to work hard to maintain the high standards of protecting Ghana’s public purse.
The Ministry of Finance, and the government, he said, expect members of the Board to continuously strive for innovation and sustainability in the conduct of procurement through the electronic system of the Ghana Electronic Procurement System and ensure greater transparency, accountability and value for money in Ghana’s public procurement sector.
The Board, he said, has an enormous task not only in ensuring the Authority successfully achieves its mandate and mission but more importantly working assiduously to improve the image of the procurement profession in the country.
Source: Mypublisher24.com