Chief executives of public institutions risk sanctions if they engage suppliers who are not registered with the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).
The government says all suppliers seeking public contracts must be registered with the Authority before providing goods, works or consultancy services to public entities.
Speaking at the 12th annual Public Procurement Forum on Monday, November 9, Ministry of Finance representative Samuel Arkhurst said chief executives bear direct responsibility for ensuring their institutions comply with the requirement.
He warned that allowing public institutions to engage unregistered suppliers amounts to a breach of procurement regulations, urging CEOs to ensure immediate compliance.
“Under the PPA Act as amended, you bear responsibility for ensuring that every supplier your organisation deals with is on the PPA’s registered supplier database. For any chief executive that stands by while his or her organisation does otherwise, it will be an act of non-compliance with the rules of the land. If you have not been compliant until now, I will urge you to turn over a new leaf from today. And remember, the law has sanctions, and the sanctions are in sections 96, 97, and 98 of the PFM law as amended.”
Meanwhile, the PPA has raised procurement thresholds for heads of public institutions from GH¢100,000 to GH¢800,000 in a move aimed at reducing bureaucratic delays and speeding up procurement processes.
Under the revised thresholds, heads of entities in Categories A, B and C can procure goods valued up to GH¢800,000 without referring the transactions to their Entity Tender Committees for approval.
The threshold for the Request for Quotation method of procurement has also been increased from GH¢100,000 to GH¢800,000.
PPA Chief Executive Frank Mante said the changes would give public institutions greater flexibility to undertake procurement while reducing delays associated with the previous approval process.
He said the Authority was also strengthening oversight of competitive and non-competitive procurement to promote transparency and ensure compliance with the law.
“The new threshold is that from 100,000 for category A, B, and C, that has been moved to 800,000 for procurement of goods, which means you can even now procure goods without going to the Entity Tender. Similarly, in terms of the use of the procurement method, we have request for quotation method of procurement, which has also a threshold of 800,000 cedis. Previously it was also 100,000 cedis, but that has now been moved up, which means that a lot more can be done very fast, you know, to reduce a lot more of the bureaucracies that we used to have.”
The PPA is further encouraging wider adoption of the Ghana Electronic Procurement System (GHANEPS) to improve competition, reduce human interference and make public tendering more accessible to suppliers across the country.
The electronic platform is expected to allow suppliers to participate in tendering processes remotely, reducing the cost and inconvenience of travelling long distances to submit bids.
By Beatrice Sowah
