Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, James Klutse Avedzi, disclosed that officials at the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) feel pressured to approve sole sourcing contract requests, even if they don’t meet the necessary criteria, due to fear of dismissal.
According to Avedzi, nearly all of these requests from state institutions, about 99.9%, are granted because of the influential figures in government backing such contracts.
Speaking to EIB Network’s Parliamentary Affairs Correspondent Ibrahim Alhassan, Avedzi highlighted that many of the infractions outlined in the Auditor General’s Reports revolve around procurement, despite the existence of laws governing the process.
He further explained that PPA officials often feel compelled to approve these irregular requests, fearing job loss if they refuse the powerful individuals behind them.
“What they do is to write to the Procurement Authority for approval and I can tell you that if you take a 100% of requests to the Public Procurement Authority, about 99.9% are approved.”
Mr. Avedzi pointed out that despite President Akufo-Addo, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, and key members of the NPP expressing strong disapproval of sole sourcing, the practice has become prevalent.
“It is happening now more than before. The challenge that the workers or those people who are working at the Public Procurement Authority have is that, if there is a pressure from high authority, I want you to approve this request. So you choose between your job security and approval of that.”.
“The request will not be met because there are conditions under which you can do sole sourcing. Those conditions are not met by that request and if I don’t do it maybe I will be sacked, Maybe the one who put me there is asking me to do it, if I deny him this, what will happen? My job is at stake.
According to him, the other challenge with the fight against corruption is the poor working conditions of the staff of the PPA. According to Mr. Avedzi the development makes it difficult for the authority to exercise its mandate to ensure a better procurement process.
The PAC chairman related to a staff member of the PPA whose terms of engagement were varied to her disadvantage.
“The other one is the condition of service of those working at the regulatory body. There was an issue where somebody was engaged as a lawyer on contract and she was being paid around GhC4,000.00, which is also not enough, but she was managing with that and when her condition of employment was regularised, she’s now been put on government payroll. Approval had been given by the Public Services Commission and the salary came down to about GhC2,000.00, to her disadvantage. So the board of PPA had to decide what to do. They decided to top up her salary by GhC2,000.00 to still maintain the GhC4,000.00.
The auditors cited that difference and when I looked at it I said, looking at the condition under which this thing happened, I don’t think we should push it too much. So if the condition of service of the people who are working there is so bad, what do you think they will do? They are human beings, and they will be tempted to receive some packages to make them survive, so that they can take care of their family. So these two things are making it to the extent that procurement issues are becoming alarming. So how do we resolve this?”
Mr. Avedzi called for better conditions of service for the staff of PPA. This, according to him, will help address their susceptibility to corruption.
“That regulatory body must be well paid so that there will be no temptation to receive anything. It will not completely rule it out but it can cut it down to a large extent. Once I’m paid well and you want to offer me a bribe or something so that I can approve something that I know is wrong, my conscience will tell me that ‘hey look why do you want to do this?’ So let’s pay them well.”
The lawmaker also called on government officials and leading members of the governing party to refrain from putting pressure on PPA to approve sole sourcing requests which do not meet the requirements of the Act.
“To those of us who are putting pressure on them to approve something that we know is wrong because we are doing it for our own benefit must be committed to say that ‘I will not do that’ . Once we do that, we solve the problem.
Mr. Avedzi expressed frustration over the failure to act on the recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee regarding breaches identified in the Auditor General’s reports.
“The third one is that those people who are found liable must be punished and this Public Accounts Committee has cited and referred a number of people. The prominent among them is the sole sourcing which was done by Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company. I referred this to the Attorney General for prosecution but as we sit here no prosecution has started,” Mr. Avedzi stated.
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