Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Kwame Prempeh, has described the Ghana Electronic Procurement System (GHANEPS) as an ongoing success story that needs to be fully implemented.
This, according to Mr Prempeh, will be for the benefit of all stakeholders both private and public agencies and the country as a whole.
When fully implemented, the system, he noted, will save the country in which procurement irregularities have become the biggest bane about $100m yearly.
He disclosed this on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem as he detailed the progress of the system which was launched in 2019.
“We have started enrolling agencies onto the system and so far, we have successfully finished with 450 coupled with the training of staff and they are at various stages of implementation.
“The goal is to get every agency onboard by October 2023 so manual procurement processes can become a thing of the past and it will aid transparency and accounatbility. Private agencies can also take advantage,” he stated.
Despite these successes chalked, Mr Prempeh bemoaned some agencies have refused to start using the system and cautioned it is better they use it and become familiar.
“I want to tell the agencies not implementing the system that we may still be in a grace period window but when we are fully down with the enrolment, nobody will be allowed to resort to the manual system. They should note that if they forget the processes too, they will have to pay a fee for another training to be organised,” he cautioned.
The training and system enrolment, he noted, have so far taken place in about four regions including Greater Accra, and Ashanti with the Oti Region being the next destination.