Skip to main content

No period adopted to settle workers pension request


Mr Seth Terkper, Minister of Finance, on Thursday said the Ministry would with effect from next year ensure that no warrant for payments are issued unless such expenditure are duly captured and aligned with procurement plans of entities.
finance minister“If any capital expenditure is not properly incorporated into the procurement plans of Procurement Entities then it will have no basis for payment,” he said.
The Minister, who was speaking at the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) 2014 Public Forum and 10th anniversary celebration, said “if we are to reform as a nation, we must be bold to unearth malfeasance and fraud from our system”.
The occasion, on the theme “Extending the Frontiers of Ghana’s Procurement Management: A Look at the Next Decade” attracted more than 500 people from industries, entities, academia, civil society, donors, and past board members of the Authority.
Mr Terkper said the theme was most appropriate because looking back, it was indeed a joy to note that the current public procurement reforms which begun in early 1990s as part of the initiatives of the then National Democratic Congress Government finally came into fruition with the passage of the Public Procurement Act in 2003 setting the tone for a massive take-off.
He said the promulgation of the Public Procurement Act in 2003, (Act 663) has without doubt brought immense benefit to the economy, in spite of few challenges, and commended the PPA for remaining resolute to its core mandate.
He said 10 years in the life of an institution like PPA gives course for changes in certain aspects of the application of the law in practical terms.
“I am therefore glad to announce that the proposed amendments have received cabinet’s approval and it is on its way to be laid before Parliament,” he said.
He pledged the Ministry continued support for initiatives of the PPA to ensure that public procurement is conducted with due attention to the economy, efficiency and value for money.
“To the Public Procurement Entities, which are the implementers of the Act, I would want to encourage you to collaborate closely with the PPA, and avail yourself of the numerous tailored training opportunities that the Authority puts across from time to time to develop institutional capacity for procurement,” he said.
This he said, was the surest means of enhancing their performance levels and ensuring better accountability of the State’s resources.
Mr Samuel Salas-Mensah, Chief Executive of PPA, mentioned poor procurement planning among procurement entities and funding of PPA’s activities as their key challenges.
He was however, grateful to the development partners who as a result of their firm commitment to seeing an effective public procurement system in Ghana have supported various aspects of the Authority’s work.
He said PPA would keep on pushing for the integration of Public Procurement into the overall Public Financial Management framework.
“Currently, the procurement function is sometimes perceived to be outside the framework and only considered when it is time to carry out financial management exercises. This situation cannot be allowed to continue,” he added.
Mr Salas-Mensah said the first step was to get the Budget Directorate of the Ministry of Finance to impress on entities to post their procurement plans on PPA’s website for before Commencement Warrants of projects and activities are issued.
Commodore Steve Obimpeh (rtd), PPA Board Chairman, said despite the difficulties, the Authority had chalked out significant success in areas of capacity development, by training more than 20,000 Procurement functionaries across the country on Monitoring and Evaluation and conducting major Assessment exercises for than 1000 Procurement Entities nationwide.
“The PPA has also made international strides. We have over the past decades, successfully hosted various teams from Public procurement Regulatory Institutions from Tanzania, Botswana, Nigeria and Liberia to benchmark our operations and exchange ideas on effective Public procurement Management,” he added.
In the quest to bring the operations of the Authority closer to the door-step of the entities, PPA have so far decentralised its operations by establishing two zonal offices in Sekondi-Takoradi and Kumasi and would in time expand to the remaining eight regions.
Deserving and hard working staff were honoured with certificates and undisclosed amount of money.

Credit:GNA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vodafone sells 45% shares in Verizon for US$130 billion

Vodafone has sold its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless to US telecoms group Verizon Communications in one of the biggest deals in corporate history. The US$130 billion (£84bn) deal was announced by Vodafone after the close of trading on the London Stock Exchange. The company will return £54 billion to its shareholders, of which £22 billionn will go to shareholders in the UK. Vodafone will also invest money in its business, with funds earmarked for high speed mobile phone networks. It said that by 2017 its main five European markets would have almost complete 4G coverage. Possibly it would be wrong to carp and wring hands that Vodafone won't be paying a penny of tax to the British taxman” Vodafone group chairman Gerard Kleisterlee said: "The transaction will position Vodafone strongly to pursue our leadership strategy in mobile and unified communication services for consumers and enterprises, both in our developed markets and across our emerging markets businesses." The...
Post a Comment
Read more

Shortage of weighing cards hit major hospitals in Accra

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong- Daily Express There is scarcity of Child Health Records Book (weighing cards), in some major public hospitals in the capital, information reaching the Daily Express indicates. Checks by this paper revealed that while some of the hospitals have being encountering the shortage for about a year now, others started experiencing it six months ago. In place of the Child Health Record Book (weighing card), the nursing mothers are given a single card on which information of children are recorded on it. Those hospitals identified are the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Korle Bu Polyclinic, Kaneshie Polyclinic, Adabraka Polyclinic and the Ridge Hospital. At the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the nursing mothers are given yellow cards in place of the weighing cards. The Public Relations Secretariat at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital said such information has not come to their notice and for that matter they cannot comment on it. “We do not have some ...
Post a Comment
Read more

ABL launches chibuku super in Bolgatanga

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong sarpong007@gmail.com Accra Brewery Limited (ABL) has officially launched the Chibuku Super drink at Bolgatanga in the Upper East region with the aim of reaching a lot of customers. Mr. Thomas Nii Ponku, Supervisor in charge of Chibuku Super at ABL told Daily Express that the management decided to launch the Chibuku Super drink in the Upper East region because they’ve realized it is similar to a traditional drink in the region. “Chibuku is like a well developed pito, a traditional drink made from fermented millet or sorghum in the Northern part of Ghana. So the idea is to provide them with similar drink,” he added. Mr. Nii Ponku disclosed this when members of the Institute of Finance and Economic Journalists (IFEJ) toured the facility of ABL to acquaint themselves with the expansion project at the factory. He mentioned that after a feasibility study, they realized there is a potential market for the product in the northern part of Ghana ...
Post a Comment
Read more