Participate in ongoing GHANEPS training to stay touch with our digital migration – PPA urges institutions
The Public Procurement Authority (PPA) has urged various institutions that engage in public procurement to abreast themselves with knowledge on its ongoing GHANEPS training across the country.
Ghana Electronic Procurement System (GHANEPS), as explained at the workshop organised by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, is a migration from the manual mode of tendering and bidding for contracts to an electronic medium to eliminate the lapses in the procurement system.
Head of Public Affairs of PPA, David Damoah, told Ghanasonline.com on the side-lines of the workshop on Open Contracting and E-Procurement, that, GHANEPS, when fully implemented, will erode the public perception of corruption shrouded in the procurement system.
“…To the contractors, suppliers and consultants, with the new GHANEPS, I’ll entreat them to take advantage of our ongoing training programmes because we are going to move virtually from manual to electronic so if you don’t take advantage of our training programme and benefit from it, then it is likely that you’ll not be able to participate in future procurement tender processes because you’ll not be able to either tender, bid and participate in the whole process because everything is going to be online,” he told Ghanasonline.com.
He explained further, that the GHANEPS, will, if not eradicate, minimise the human interface so that suppliers, contractors and consultants can bid for any project online.
“…so now the tender is submitted online, valuation is done online where contracts would be approved and awarded and it is one of the surest ways for ensuring that procurement engenders transparency” due to the up to date information in the system where suppliers would know what’s happening at each point in time.
Mr. Damoah said the inability of a procurement officer to connive with people to supply late bids completely curbs bid rigging and bid collusion that characterised the process hitherto.
Another concern which according to Mr. Damoah has been confused with the public is the work of the PPA and that of the institutions, is the failure of the institutions to take action in times of breach in the processes due to the fear of being blacklisted and losing future engagements with the entities involved.
“Sometimes people confuse the work of the Authority (PPA) with the work of the procuring institutions. PPA we don’t procure for institutions. The institutions do their own work. We act as a regulator so if there is anything that you think is going on at the entity level, the law has given a mechanism for which your grievances can be addressed. Just that sometimes some of the suppliers they’re afraid to complain because their fear is that if they complain, the institution will not engage them in any bid the next time they participate. The law says [they should] complain first to the institution, if you’re not satisfied then you come to PPA. In fact if you’re not satisfied with PPA’s decision you go to the High Court. So there are so much processes that engenders transparency just that it is the suppliers themselves that sometimes maybe for fear that they will be blacklisted by the institutions, they refuse to complain,” he explained.
He said training has been completed in the Western region and currently ongoing in the Eastern region, noting “our officers are with the entities one-on-one trying to on-board them to let them know how to use it [GHANEPS] on the computer.”
The training, he indicated, comes at no cost at the Accra Digital Centre and all regional capitals as and when it gets to the regions and urged all institutions to actively participate in order not to be left out.
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