Execise high sense of integrity- Baah Wiredu

Story: Boahene Asamoah & Zelda Boadi Appiah
THE Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, has called on members of tender boards to exercise a high sense of integrity and accountability in the discharge of their duties.
He said members should be guided by the fact that public funds should be used judiciously for the public good.
The minister, who made this known in an address delivered on his behalf by the Chief Director of the Ministry, Nana Juaben Boateng Siriboe, at the formal launch of a nation-wide training programme organised by the Public Procurement Board (PPB) in Accra on Wednesday.
Mr Baah-Wiredu said there was the need to ensure a sense of professionalism in public procurement to ensure value for money and accountability adding that the Procurement Act had come to stay.
He said that the expenditure of public procurement represented about 50 to 70 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and said a considerable part of the country’s resources were channelled through the country’s procurement system.
“Therefore, making procurement efficient and ensuring value for money would translate into better infrastructure and public services for the people,” Mr Baah-Wiredu said.
The minister said the human factor was critical in ensuring an efficient public procurement system in the country, adding that efforts at training and developing the capacity of actors were a welcomed news and deserved the support of all.
The Finance Minister said the country’s public procurement reform was increasingly becoming a centre of excellence within the African continent and was being closely monitored by the country’s development partners.
He said recent World Bank and Commonwealth country assessment conducted about three months ago highly rated the country’s public procurement, saying that “ we cannot afford to regress on the success chalked”.
The Chief Executive Officer of the procurement board, Mr Adjenim Boateng Adjei, said the passage of the procurement act was a bold initiative and very essential in government’s financial management reform programme.
He said the board had developed a broad capacity programme to cover short, medium and long-term human resource development.
Mr Adjei said the board, in conjunction with the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply of the United Kingdom, the National Council on Tertiary Education (NCTE) and the National Board for Professional and Technical Examination (NABTEX), was assisting in the development of appropriate training modules for the course that would be delivered by accredited institutions from short term programmes to Higher National Diploma (HND) and degree programmes.