The Minister of Monitoring and Evaluation, Anthony Akoto Osei, has downplayed suggestions for government to consider sole sourcing its contracts.
The Deputy Minority Leader, James Kludze Avedzi, had argued that government’s decision to totally forgo sole-sourcing in awarding government contracts might delay critical projects since sole-sourcing has its own benefits.
Mr. Avedzi revealed that going through the normal tendering process, could take weeks and in some cases months, which might lead to unnecessary delays.
“…Anything you want to procure, you have to go through these processes and sole sourcing is going to make governance so difficult for them…I wish them well; but I have my doubts and I believe that it is going to put them in a tight corner, and it will even have negative effects on this country,” Mr. Avedzi explained.
But speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Akoto Osei rubbished these suggestions, saying government should shun the idea of resorting to sole sourcing, since it does not encourage quality and competition.
“I don’t know why Ghana should be an exception. The regimes make sole sourcing an exception not the norm. Governments everywhere go through competitive bidding and it doesn’t delay the process and programmes of governments everywhere so I don’t know why Ghana should be an exception.”
“We don’t give value for money and that is why it is only an exception. When it becomes the norm then you know government is being cheated and that is why we go for competitive bidding. Good governance requires competition.”
MP calls for more power for procurement authority
The Deputy Majority Leader of Parliament, Adwoa Safo, had earlier called for the amendment of the public procurement act to give the Procurement Authority, the powers to conduct value for money auditing on sole-sourced projects.
She described as sad, revelations by the Auditor General’s annual reports that 80 percent of the procurement malpractices are centered on sole sourcing.
“From 2012 to 2014 when I was on the public accounts committee, about 80% of their recommendations to parliament are procurement malpractices… So I think that if the law is there, you need also a policy direction. And I think that, that is the first step that the president has given us in his state of the nation address.”
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
