Accra, Dec. 23, GNA - Government on Friday asked procurement officers to quickly come out with a system to facilitate a development framework to guide procurement that would make the supply chain management work.

Addressing the inaugural meeting of the proposed Institute of Procurement and Supply Chain Management, Ghana, in Accra, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, said following the passage of the Public Procurement Act of 2003 into law, it had come to light that there was a shortfall of persons with the requisite skills to manage procurement.

He expressed the hope that the Institute would work to engender greater interest and professionalism as well as offer sufficient protection to clients and beneficiaries of their services. He noted that people and institutions that did not manage their procurement practices would not make progress on their balance sheets, stressing that it was for this that government came out with the Act to guide procurement which took between 50 per cent and 70 per cent of Government tax revenue.

Mr Baah-Wiredu asked the professionals to spend time to study the Act, learn the various aspects and get on with the opportunities it offered both the private and public sectors.

He said the Office of The Head of Civil Service and the Public Services Commission in collaboration the Public Procurement Board (PPB) was ensuring the establishment of a procurement cadre in the Civil and Public Service to address the needs of professionals. Mr Agyenim Boateng Adjei, Chief Executive of the Board, said they would facilitate the training of public officials involved in public procurement at various levels.

He said the PPB together with Chartered Institute Procurement Secretaries, United Kingdom (CIPS, UK) was working on a number of professional training initiatives to raise professional procurement training in Ghana to international standards.

Mr Adjei said current procurement practitioners would undertake 3-6 months programmes depending on their level and an intensive procurement-training programme at GIMPA.