Educate public officials on procurement law – PAC chairman

The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, Dr James Klutse Avedzi, has called for continuous education of public officials on the Public Procurement Act in order to prevent exploitation of the system for their benefits.

This, according to him, would save the nation substantial income for national development.

Dr Avedzi, who made the appeal in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the PAC sitting at Sunyani in the Bono Region, said it was obvious that most civil servants had not acquainted themselves with the procurement laws, which had resulted in the government recording huge revenue leakages through the award of contracts.

“You can clearly see that most civil servants are not following the procurement law. If you want to procure through sole sourcing, there are steps to take. Most of these state institutions do not have copies of the procurement law”, he said.

Dr Avedzi indicated that to check procurement breaches by public officials, there was the need to enforce the procurement law strictly rather than being lenient with the offenders.

He said that “We need to make corruption an expensive business in the country to deter people who may want to engage in it.”

Dr Avedzi advocated prosecutorial powers for PAC to be able to arrest and prosecute people who engaged in graft in the country.

The PAC sitting involved officials of Municipal and District Assemblies from Bono, Bono East and Ashanti regions, and issues that were raised included unsubstantiated payments, failure to withhold taxes leading to revenue losses, and ghost names on the payroll.

For instance, the Kintampo Municipal Assembly, which was to retrieve GH¢754,172, following court judgment, could only collect GH¢70,000 out of the amount from the former accountant of the assembly who is on retirement.