The Public Procurement Authority (PPA) has introduced new measures that have saved the state a whooping GH¢1.6 billion in a period of a year and three (3) months. This was disclosed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), of the authority, Mr Agyenim Boateng Adjei.
The measures include the establishment of two units to scrutinise procurement requests made to it by state institutions to ensure the equitable use of state resources.
In an interaction with senior journalists in Accra, Mr Adjei said the PPA was committed to achieving its mandate of safeguarding the public purse to ensure value for money and efficiency in public procurement processes.
Mr Adjei said in view of the growing concern over the operations of the authority, it engaged in an aggressive agenda to restore efficiency and confidence in the public procurement system which he described as “a critical force to deliver important development outcomes.”
The CEO said one of the units that was set up — the Due Diligence/Value for money Unit — examined the price reasonableness of estimated values provided by agencies for sole sourcing and restricted tendering.
The unit, therefore, approved such requests not just based on the urgency of the request, as was the case previously, but whether the prices being quoted were reasonable enough.
In many cases, he said, the prices quoted were found to be far above the prevailing market prices.
Mr Adjei explained that in 2017, the new measures helped the state to make a saving of GH¢800 million, while for the first half of 2018, a saving of over GH¢795 million was made, bringing the total to nearly GH¢1.6 billion.
He noted that although the Auditor General’s report uncovered some misuse of state funds annually, the PPA was determined to ensure that that money was not spent before the findings were made.
“We want to prevent the loss of the money before the Auditor General finds out”, he said.