PPA clarifies GHANEPS implementation amidst criticism from IMANI Africa

The Public Procurement Authority (PPA) of Ghana has clarified some concerns raised by Bright Simons, the Vice President of IMANI Africa, regarding the implementation of the Ghana Electronic Procurement System (GHANEPS).

In a recent article titled ‘Opinion: The dark side of the World Bank’s ‘giveaways’ in Ghana,’ Mr. Simons highlighted several issues he perceived with the procurement system.

The PPA, while welcoming the involvement of Civil Society Organisations in public procurement processes, pointed out inaccuracies in Mr. Simons’ assertions.

According to the PPA’s statement dated April 26, 2024, there seems to be a misunderstanding regarding the ‘tender result’ mentioned by Mr. Simons.

The authority clarified that as of April 23, 2024, GHANEPS has successfully awarded 5048 contracts from a total of 3205 published tenders. The discrepancy in numbers is attributed to some tenders having multiple lots, resulting in several contracts.

“Based on the numbers provided, the Authority assumes that Mr Simons was referring to contracts awarded through GHANEPS when he used the term “tender results”. As of Tuesday 23rd of April 2024, there have been 5048 contracts awarded in GHANEPS, coming out of a total of 3205 tenders published.

“Some tenders have lots that lead to multiple contracts, hence the difference in number of contracts. 64% of these tenders are Request for Quotations (RFQ). In Ghana, RFQ method of procurement has a maximum threshold of GHS 100,000 and it is the most common used method.

“The percentage of RFQs out of the total number of procurements conducted in Ghana has been above 60% in the past 5 years. Another point is that, as part of the change management strategy, a grace period was given to Procurement Entities (PE) to do manual procurement alongside electronic until the completion of the roll-out to all entities.

“This enabled them to use small-value tenders to ease their transition from manual to electronic procurement. Therefore, it is normal for Mr. Simons to find a lot of tenders with value below $100,000 at this stage of the implementation,” parts of the statement read.

Below is the full statement by the PPA

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