By Stephen Kwabena Effah
Monday, 12 February 2007
AN economist, Kwame Pianim, has described the Public Procurement Act as "cumbersome," and called for the exclusion of representatives of Parliament and Attorney General’s Department from the Public Procurement Board.
He explained that representatives of the two institutions already have busy schedules, saying "these are all busy people, so to get them to review procurements is difficult.
"They are also not necessarily experts in procurement and so they should not be on the board," he said, in an interview with the Times after the opening of the third joint review meeting of the Private Sector Development Strategy and Action Plan in Accra last Friday.
This was in reaction to concerns raised by the participants on delays in the procurement processes.
He noted for instance that it could take an organisation about six months to go through the procurement processes to recruit an expert or acquire a vehicle.
He called for the removal of the cumbersome processes while ensuring that people remain accountable for their jobs.
Mr. Pianim, who was the chairman for the occasion, said representatives from Parliament and the A-G’s Department "are supposed to be doing some work that they do not even have time to do," stressing that their job is to make sure that rules and laws concerning businesses are done properly.
He said that Parliament, for example, represents the sovereign people of the country, and explained that when one misspend funds, it goes to the Public Accounts Committee, which has the time to investigate.
"You cannot be a hunter and also be one of the people being hunted" he said and added: "I don’t think we need the A-G and Parliament to be represented. Parliamen-tarians have no business to be on the Procurement Board."
"They supervise to ensure that things are done properly and should not be part of those recommending the expenditures," he said.
Monday, 12 February 2007
AN economist, Kwame Pianim, has described the Public Procurement Act as "cumbersome," and called for the exclusion of representatives of Parliament and Attorney General’s Department from the Public Procurement Board.He explained that representatives of the two institutions already have busy schedules, saying "these are all busy people, so to get them to review procurements is difficult.
"They are also not necessarily experts in procurement and so they should not be on the board," he said, in an interview with the Times after the opening of the third joint review meeting of the Private Sector Development Strategy and Action Plan in Accra last Friday.
This was in reaction to concerns raised by the participants on delays in the procurement processes.
He noted for instance that it could take an organisation about six months to go through the procurement processes to recruit an expert or acquire a vehicle.
He called for the removal of the cumbersome processes while ensuring that people remain accountable for their jobs.
Mr. Pianim, who was the chairman for the occasion, said representatives from Parliament and the A-G’s Department "are supposed to be doing some work that they do not even have time to do," stressing that their job is to make sure that rules and laws concerning businesses are done properly.
He said that Parliament, for example, represents the sovereign people of the country, and explained that when one misspend funds, it goes to the Public Accounts Committee, which has the time to investigate.
"You cannot be a hunter and also be one of the people being hunted" he said and added: "I don’t think we need the A-G and Parliament to be represented. Parliamen-tarians have no business to be on the Procurement Board."
"They supervise to ensure that things are done properly and should not be part of those recommending the expenditures," he said.
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