Beginning next year, the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) will embark on the assessment of procurement activities of as many as a thousand state entities, in compliance with the public procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663).

This was contained in the Finance Committee report on the annual budget estimates for the Ministry of Finance.

The report also states that the assessment has been outstanding since 2016, and will therefore cover the years 2016, 2017 and 2018.

“The assessment will employ the public procurement model of excellence (PPME) tool, and will cover a total of one thousand (1,000) entities,” the report indicates.

The PPA will, in 2019, complete work on the standard tender documents which it is currently reviewing. These documents will include framework agreements and sustainability criteria for protection of the environment.

The completed standard tender documents will be put on the PPA’s website for ease of access by users.

The PPA, which is part of the agencies under the Ministry of Finance, has been allocated GH?5million for 2019, out of which GH?3.7m is earmarked for compensation of employees while GH?1.3m will be for goods and services. Capital expenditure has a budget of GH?199,000.

In 2018, the PPA trained 550 officials in revised training modules for procurement practitioners, entity tender committees (ETC), and tender review committees, service providers and oversight institutions.

The training covered the procurement of goods, works, technical services and consultancy services.

It further continued to update the price database for common user items, which measures average prices across the country to serve as a guide to entities in their procurement activities; especially in the area of value for money analysis.

This database serves as a very useful resource to entities for their budgeting and price analysis purposes.