We’ll end shortcuts in procurement – Ameyaw-Ekumfi
Board members
The Chairman of the newly-inaugurated Board of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Ekumfi, has promised to end “shortcuts” in procurement at the ministries, departments and agencies of the state.
Professor Ameyaw-Ekumfi said for the public purse to be truly protected, procurement irregularities needed to be weeded out.
“We are going to work with the law and all the shortcuts in procurement will be done away with to assist the President and his government in ensuring that the public purse is indeed protected,” Prof Ameyaw-Ekumfi said.
He gave this assurance at the swearing-in ceremony of the nine-member board in Accra on Monday, 27 September 2021.
Other members of the Board are Diana Asonaba Dapaah, a Deputy Minister of Justice, Frank Mantey, Hayford Amoh, Ernestina Swatson Eshun, Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, Samuel Richard New Baidoo, Isaac Kofi Amoah and Patricia Sarfo.
According to Prof Ameyaw-Ekumfi, a former Education Minister in the erstwhile John Agyekum Kufuor-led government, issues of procurement remain sensitive to the Ghanaian hence the need to treat same with diligence to give the citizenry value for money.
The Auditor-General reports over the years, he observed, have been replete with procurement breaches causing the state thousands of cedis; a trend he said the Board he chairs would be working to eliminate.
A Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr John Kumah, swearing in the Board said it plays an essential and pivotal role in the application of the public financial management regime and the members must strive to live up to that expectation.
“You have an enormous task not only in ensuring that the Authority successfully achieves its mandate but also work to improve its image and the procurement profession in our country,” Dr Kumah, MP, Ejisu charged.
The government, he said, expects the Prof Ameyaw-Ekumfi chaired Board to “be one which continuously strives for innovation and sustainability in the conduct of procurement through electronic systems to ensure greater transparency, accountability and value for money”.
