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General News of Wednesday, May 1st, 2019
Source: Graphic.com.gh
2019-05-01
Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia
Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has launched a national e-procurement system to improve the efficiency and transparency of government procurement.
Nicknamed: the "Electronic Market" (e-GP Procurement), the $ 5 million project that will be managed by the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), will ensure that public sector purchases have been made to the public. 39, help with information technology (IT).
The e-GP, funded by the $ 97 million e-Transform program sponsored by the World Bank, aims to strengthen government accountability, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness.
The event also marked the launch of the APP website.
launching
Dr. Bawumia yesterday launched the e-GP in Accra, which was tested in six very expensive government institutions, namely Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Ghana Health Service (GHS), Koforidua Technical University (KTU), Volta River Authority (VRA), Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) and Service Roads Department (DFR).
After the pilot phase, he said, the staff of the 660 public sector entities would be trained and integrated into the system to ensure that, by 2020, all public institutions and agencies are transferred to the system so that to monitor their procurement activities and reduce corruption.
The vice president said the e-GP is the first of its kind in Africa and demonstrates the country's leadership position in digital innovation in the sub-region.
He explained that with the e-GP, Procurement processes including registration, attestation, tender calls and the following: contracts, would be made available in electronic form.
Mr. Bawumia said that the online procurement system had arrived at the right time and that it was an important tool for ensuring transparency by reducing corruption in the procurement process.
Mr. Bawumia felt that the electronic system would enhance coordination and competition, increase productivity, and ensure paperless transactions, while limiting the human interface in purchasing.
Digital innovation
Mr. Bawumia said the digitization of the procurement system was a realization of the government's goal of transforming the Ghanaian economy into a digital economy.
He mentioned the recently launched Paperless Court, the electronic immigration system for border control and other immigration services, as well as the electronic parliament system of the country. Parliament of Ghana, as electronic projects aimed at transforming the economy into a digitized system. .
Migrant government agencies
In her speech, Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said e-GP should cut prices for goods and services by 10 to 20 percent due to increased competitiveness. It would also reduce transaction costs by 50 to 80 percent and public spending by 20 to 30 percent.
"By tracing each information and transaction detail of the buying process, eProcurement increases transparency and forces governments to be more accountable for taxpayers' money. In addition, the potential for fraud and corruption in government procurement can be significantly reduced, "she said.
She said technology is rapidly transforming the way business is done globally and that, from SMEs to large multinationals, the deployment of IT has transformed operations, resulting in increased efficiency and cost savings.
Ms. Owusu-Ekuful said the Ministry of Communications has cooperated with other ministries, departments and agencies to promote digitization to respond to the global trend of improving service delivery to the public.
The minister said that the implementation of an effective scanning program required the availability of a quality network for connectivity and electronic implementation of programs to provide national coverage of the country. correct use of at least 10 gigabytes in all district capitals of the country.
The CEO of the PPA, Mr. Agyenim Boateng Adjei, for his part said that the project of a formidable e-GP project had started seven years ago, but had been blocked and had been relaunched by the current government in 2017, when a contract had been signed. for the project to start.
He said countries around the world are opting for e-procurement platforms because of the potential to deal with irregularities and unnecessary costs badociated with the procurement process.
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