Eight-member tender committee inaugurated for YEA
An eight-member committee has been inaugurated to steer the affairs of the Entity Tender Committee of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) with a call on the members to eschew corruption.
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One of the responsibilities of the committee is to ensure that all procurement activities of the agency were carried out judiciously for the effective operations of the agency.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Mr Samuel Sallas-Mensah, who made the call, therefore, urged the members to follow the laid down procedures prescribed in the Public Procurement Act, 2003
in carrying out their activities.
Members
The committee, which is chaired by Mr Vincent Senam Kuagbenu, includes Messrs Tahir Abdul Rashid, Sylvester Williams, Theophilus Tettey Chaie and Nii Armah Ashitey. The rest are Henry P. Magnusen, Sulemana Ibrahim and Richard Adjei Darkwah.
Mr Sallas-Mensah asked the committee members to always come out with their annual procurement plans that supported the objectives and operations of YEA.
He entreated them to facilitate effective “contract administration and reporting” and also ensure that stores and equipment management processes were adhered to in accordance with the Procurement Act.
Mr Sallas-Mensah further urged them to ensure that their activities were governed by the principles of transparency, accountability and fairness at all times.
“It is my firm belief that as you do this, you will be able to avoid and overcome some of the common pitfalls of corruption in public service,” he advised.
According to Mr Sallas-Mensah, national budgets were, to a large extent, translated into goods, works and services through the process of public procurement.
He said in Ghana for instance, it represented about 12 per cent of total imports, 14 per cent of its Gross Domestic Products (GDP) and constituted about 50 -70 per cent of the national budgets besides the government wage bill.
Strengthening Public Act
To strengthen the practice of public procurement in the country, Mr Sallas-Mensah said the government had in recent times tabled a set of proposed amendments in Parliament for consideration.
Some of the highlights of the amendment, he said, included the new categorisation of entity tender committees, where institutions such as the YEA, which formed part of the government’s central management agencies, would constitute category “B3” of procurement entities and be given extended procurement thresholds to facilitate effective procurement processes to avoid undue delays.
He said substantial increases were also being proposed to the approval of thresholds of entities in order to minimise the delays associated with processing small threshold values.
Commitment
On behalf of members, Mr Richard Adjei Darkwah gave the assurance that they would work to justify the confidence reposed in them.
Audit committee
In a related development, Mr Sallas-Mensah also inaugurated a five-member committee of the Audit Report Implementation Committee (ARIC).
It is under the chairmanship of Mr Victor Donkor, while the other members are Mr Vincent S. Kuagbenu, Mr Sulemana Ibrahim, Mr Kwame Ofosu Apenteng and Mr Armstrong Amanor.