Ugandans study Ghana’s procurement system

A delegation from the Public Procurement and Disposal Authority of Uganda is in the country on a three-day study tour to learn from the experiences of Ghana’s Public Procurement Authority (PPA).
The tour will provide an opportunity for members of the delegation to familiarise themselves with some challenges that have confronted Ghana’s PPA and its successes in the implementation of the Public Procurement Act 2003 (Act 663).
The delegation will be introduced to some initiatives such as the Public Procurement Model of Excellence Toolkit and the inroads being made in the area of Framework Contracting and Sustainable Public Procurement in Ghana.
The Head of the delegation, Mrs Sarah Lubega, attested to the fact that there was a lot to learn from Ghana when it called on a Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Fiifi Kwetey, to brief him on the essence of the tour.
Asked why the team chose to learn from Ghana’s PPA, she said Ghana, which had a similar system as prevailed in Uganda, had one of the best procurement planning software which was very efficient.
Mrs Lubega said her team saw it expedient to learn from Ghana’s experience and challenges, instead of travelling outside Africa to learn from the experiences of Western countries.
Responding, Mr Kwetey urged the PPA to deepen the process of transparency in the procurement process to ensure the efficient use of public funds.
He gave the assurance that the government would support the PPA to ensure that best practices used around the world were factored into the process to ensure the judicious use of public funds.
The Chief Executive Officer of the PPA, Mr Adjenim Boateng Adjei, said the objective of Ghana’s PPA was to harmonise the process of procurement in the public service to secure judicious, economic and efficient use of public funds to ensure that public procurement was carried out in a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory manner while promoting a competitive local industry.
“The vision of Ghana’s PPA is to ensure a world-class, efficient, transparent, accountable and professionally managed public sector procurement system which enjoys high level of business confidence and ensures consistent attainment of best value for money in the procurement of goods, works and services in support of the national development agenda,” he said.
According to him, the PPA had been able, to a very large extent, achieve most of its targets and goals through a three-year roll out strategic plan which was periodically reviewed in accordance with the target the authority had set to see whether it was on course.