Some heads of public institutions, mostly in the health and education sector in the Upper East Region have been sensitized to the country’s procurement laws and corruption risk in procurement.
The beneficiaries of the training including procurement officers and Civil Society Organizations were selected from Bolgatanga Municipality, Bongo, and Talensi Districts.
The participants were also schooled on the importance of the Ghana Electronic Procurement System (GHANEPS) which was launched in 2019 to facilitate public procurement processes.
Bright Sowu, Head of Programmes at the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), organizers of the training while speaking to A1 Radio in Bolgatanga expressed optimism that the training will, in the long run, if not eliminate, reduce corrupt practices in the procurement processes at both public and private institutions.
“One of the things we are trying to do is for them [agencies] to identify and report corrupt practices and that is why we are taking them through this training. We are also showing them the reporting platforms like PPA, CHRAJ, the Special Prosecutor, and even the GACC through the GII our partner’s platform for appropriate action to be taken”, he stated.
The training for the 40 participants was the first of its kind in the northern part of the country since the introduction of the electronic procurement process.
It was organized in support of the Participatory Action for Rural Development Alternatives (PARDA), an NGO with funding from the Hewlett Foundation through Global Integrity.
The Director of PARDA, Dr. Michael Wombeogo said he anticipates that all the agencies his outfit collaborates with will not be involved in corrupt practices due to procurement processes after the 3-day training.
“It is not easy for government agencies to always organize refresher training. To PARDA, we think that this will be another way by which we can be able to help them. Another way is that the training is going to ginger the procurement officers within the agencies like the GES and the Ghana Health Service to take their work seriously. Based on the fact that we are privileged to partner with the GACC in this perspective, the agencies will be able to experience that aspect of free corrupt practices.”
He said the training will also bridge some procurement gaps often observed at some agencies because “some entities heads do things without consulting the procurement officers”.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah|Bolgatanga|Ghana
