Minister of State in charge of Public Procurement, Madam Sarah Adwoa Safo has disclosed that government will award 70 per-cent of public procurement contracts and projects to local contractors in Ghana.
Consequently, Madam Safo who doubles as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dome-Kwabenya Constituency in the Greeter Accra noted that out of this 70%, 30% of the contracts or projects would l be awarded to Persons with Disability (PWDs), women and those in youth employment programme.
This, according to her was in line with one of the key campaign promises of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to give the youth, PWDs and women at least 30 percent of contracts and projects.
Addressing journalists at a press soiree in Accra on Tuesday, October 10, 2017, Madam Safo stated that “this is a policy the government under the leadership of President Akufo-Addo is committed to implementing”.
According to her, very soon her office would disclose how the programme was to going to be initiated.
She further revealed that there was an effort to harmonise the Public Procurement Acts (Act 663) and the Public Procurement (Amended) Act (Act 914) for easy reading and referencing.
“An e-platform of all contractors involved in government projects will also be set up to enable assessment of performance of these contractors”, she said.
Madam Safo added: “With this database, the citizenry could at any given time, assess the performance of all the contractors to know who is doing well and who is doing badly”.
She explained that, Public Procurement in collaboration Public Procurement Authority (PPA) and Attorney General Department was going to check on corruption associated with sole sourcing.
She reiterated her commitment to end wanton abuse of sole sourcing, adding that ‘the ultimate is to ensure value for money through audit’.
The Public Procurement Act, Act 663 of 2003 was introduced to sanitise government procurement procedures and make it less prone to corruption.
Story: Freeman Koryekpor Awkesu
