Accra, May 24, GNA - Top public procurement officials from English-speaking West African countries meeting in Accra were on Wednesday urged to give their Presidents a positive image by working to eliminate all practices that fed on corruption in public procurement. Addressing the opening of the one-week sub-regional workshop, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, urged the public procurement officers to streamline their national annual accounts reports for prudent State expenditure and public confidence in the reports.

The Minister's statement, which was presented by Nana Juaben-Boaten Siriboe, Chief Director of Ministry of Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP), stated that effective procurement practices had become necessary because of perceived corruption at a time when intra-regional trade was being encouraged especially through various Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) protocols.

Africa has an estimated procurement market of between nine and 13 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In Ghana, procurement takes between 50 per cent and 70 per cent of the total budget after personal emoluments, making up about 14 per cent of the GDP.

The Government of Ghana, therefore, attaches great importance to ensuring that the Public Procurement Act 663 is effectively implemented to ensure that the nation's scarce resources are efficiently utilized. Mr Baah-Wiredu observed that there had been attempts since 1998 to reform public procurement procedure in Ghana, and said since the Act became operational in 2003, the necessary structures had been put in place to make it very effective and to address its operational challenges.

He said though there was some awareness on the existence of the Act, the basic procurement structure, which was the establishment of Tender Committees, was yet to be fully achieved. Despite the challenges, the Public Procurement Board was striving to make an impact in changing procurement done with public funds in Ghana.

The Finance Minister said Ghana had in conjunction with the Swiss Government developed a Public Procurement Model of Excellence, a software package that was used for the assessment of procurement activities.

The output of the assessment is a report of the procurement activities within the assessed procurement entity and a report on the status of the procurement in the country as a whole.

He announced that Ghana was in the process of putting all professionals and practitioners engaged in procurement under one umbrella body to be called Ghana Institute of Procurement and Supply Chain Management (GIPSM).

The objective for the establishment of the new body is to recognize that apart from the members of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) other individuals from other professional backgrounds are engaged in procurement.

Mr Baah-Wiredu pointed out that huge resources were spent in procuring the wares in an organization's store and it was necessary that the stores were manned by qualified people to ensure the judicious use of the national resources.

He called for constant capacity development of procurement officers and also for respect for the legal provisions to avoid the wrath of the law.

Ms Noreen John, Adviser of the West Africa Region of the Commonwealth Secretariat, said public financial management, including public procurement reforms, posed significant problems for developing countries.

It is also of particular relevance to the West Africa Sub-Region where the context of prolonged political and social crisis had created environment for the breeding of corruption. Ghana is playing host to the 25 participants attending the senior executive programme on the theme: "Building Bridges on West African Public Procurement Systems". They would draw from Ghana=92s experience in public procurement, build bridges and harmonise their activities in the Sub-Region. 24 May 06