Sara Adwoa Safo, Minister of State in-charge of Public Procurement
The Minister of State in-charge of Public Procurement, Sara Adwoa Safo, has said that her outfit is developing a strategy to help reduce to the barest minimum procurement infractions at the various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) across the country.
She said that the move will largely rely on education and training for all procurement officers at the named institutions.
In an interview with the media, the Minister indicated that her outfit has taken steps to make sure that laid down procurement modalities are adhered to.
“We’ll work very hard with the Public Procurement Authority, as well to ensure that the infractions are reduced, in terms of training, education, sensitisation and also ensure that, indeed, the right rules and processes are followed in line with what our Act specifies,” she said.
A-G report
It would be recalled that the Auditor-General’s 2018 report revealed that financial infractions at the various government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) cost the country in excess of GHC5.1 billion, the highest since 2014.
The report further said that poor financial discipline permeates all the MDAs, a situation that has resulted in the huge leakage of funds from the country’s public purse.
Arrest
Procurement infractions at the local government level have come to the fore in recent times because of the Public Accounts Committee sittings.
Most notably, two persons from the Sefwi Akontombra Assembly in the Western Region, who appeared before the committee on January 20 2020, were arrested over alleged irregularities.
The two persons, Isaac Akowaah, a former district finance officer of the assembly, and James Esilfie, the current district finance officer, were accused of conniving to lie to the committee over irregularities cited in the report when they appeared before the committee.
