The Deputy Western Regional Minister, Mrs. Eugenia Gifty Kusi, has called on procurement officers in the various public sector offices to ensure that they always operate within the confines of the law.

She said government was committed to implement and apply sanctions regarding malpractices in public acquisition of goods and services to the letter to ensure value for money, transparency and efficient service delivery.

Mrs. Kusi said this at the opening of a day’s workshop on the amended Public Procurement Act, 2003 (ACT 663) organized by the Procurement Authority for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives , coordinating directors, heads of public owned senior high schools and health facilities, and heads of decentralized agencies.

The workshop was to help state agencies have a good appreciation of the essential provisions of the Act as amended, appreciate key amendment of Act 914 and understand the “yellow flags” of procurement fraud.

She urged the participants to work in harmony within the ACT to ensure that the citizenry got the best from the taxes paid and the overall cost savings to speed up development.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority, Adjeinim Boateng Adjei called on the institutions concerned to continually broaden their knowledge and understanding of the provisions of the Act in order to effectively deliver on their mandate as state institutions.

He said the quest to achieve a more transparent, corruption free procurement procedure has seen little results due to the flagrant abuse of the sole sourcing to loot state resources.

The CEO said the Authority in a bid to stem the practice in the bud, established the Due Diligence/Value for Money and the Procurement Audit Units to particularly forestall the wanton abuse of sole sourcing.

Mr. Adjei said Ghana’s procurement system was still vulnerable to abuse due to its complexities, the size of the financial flow it generated and the close human interface between the public and the private.

In this regard, he said, the Procurement Authority with support from the World Bank would soon pilot an electronic government procurement system among six entities; COCOBOD, Ghana Health Service, Koforidua Technical University, Volta River Authority, Tema Metropolitan Assembly and the Department of Feeder Roads to achieve even greater accountability, transparency and fairness in the procurement process