Archive

Daily Archives: May 29, 2017

Stop Abrogating Contracts Without My Consent – Adwoa Safo Warns

Minister in charge of Public Procurement, Sarah Adwoa Safo

The Minister in charge of Public Procurement, Adwoa Safo, has warned various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) as well as Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs), to stop terminating government contracts without recourse to her Ministry. ​

Her warning follows the termination of contracts by some heads of various MMDSs and MDAs​, a few days after they assumed their respective roles.

The Minister in a statement indicated that, the decision to abrogate these contracts without the Procurement Ministry's consent, might lead to "unnecessary legal battles between government and contractors which could spark needless and avoidable payment of judgement debts." ​

Adwoa Safo clarified that, although she "has ​no doubt about the competence of heads of entities to make a judgement on what a good contractor is from a bad one", she believes that it is "always important to seek legal and expect advise before a decision to abrogate a contract is taken."

Ms Safo has therefore directed that, all queries on some of these contracts should be "directed or be referred to the office of the Minister of State responsible for Public Procurement for further investigation and recommendations."​

Below is the Minister's full statement

ABROGATION OF GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS

The Minister of state responsible for Public Procurement, Hon. Sarah Adwoa Safo has observed with grave concern, recent media publications regarding abrogation of Government Contracts by some MMDAs and MDAs. ​

She has, therefore, advised all heads of entities within the MMDAs and MDAs to refer all such questionable contracts to her office for expert and legal advice.​

The Minister has no doubt about the competence of heads of entities to make a judgement on what a good decision to abrogate a contract is taken.​

Hon. Adwoa Safo noted that the move will prevent any unnecessary legal battles between government and contractors which could spark needless and avoidable payment of judgement debts.

In effect, she has a letter communicated to all Heads of entities within MMDAs and MDAs to stop terminating contracts forthwith.​

Ms Safo has further directed that all queries on some of these contracs should be directed or be referred to the office of the Minister​ of State responsible for Public Procurement for further investigation and recommendations.

Please send all correspondence in the interim to this office: Office of the Minister of State in charge of Public Procurement Office of the President -​ Flagstaff House, Accra P.M.B 62, Accra - Ghana or Parliament House 9th floor (West Wing), Room 22.

Signed, HON SARAH ADWOA SAFO (MP) MINISTER FOR PROCUREMENT​

Source: citifmonline.com​

Vice President Pays Surprise Visit To Procurement Authority

Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia paid a surprice visit to the Procurement Authority today [Thursday], to familiarize himself with the Authority's operations.

Dr. Bawumia explained that, the visit was borne out of government's desire to chart a new course and tackle challenges facing the Authority.​

"If you look at corruption in the sector, I say probably 95% plus of it is from procurement, and so we are trying to give the Public Procurement Authority​ as much as we can to execute its mandate. The Chief Executive has basically made it clear that he wants to chart a new course which is what we want to support," he explained.  

We'll ensure value for money

The Vice President said the Authority, under the NPP administration, will ensure due diligence and value for money in every procurement.​

"For every procurement, there is going to be due diligence and value for money. This is new and a new team is going to be set up here to do this. We want to bring in a lot of ​transparency in the procurement process, but we want to bring in technology and so we are moving towards E-procuremeny."

Your content here...

"Chief Executive has already said that starting in June, we are going to begin the process, which means that every procurement will have its identification number and you can track it from each stage to the end so it is going to very very transparent...There will not be any surprises."

The NPP administration has for the first time appointed a Minister of State in charge of Public Procurement.​

Member of Parliament for Dome Kwabenya, and Deputy Majority Leader Adwoa Safo, who's a professional lawyer with specialization in Procurement Law, is the Minister for that unit.​

Vice President pays surprise visit to Registrar General, Tema Shipyard 

This is the third time Vice President Alhaji Dr Mahamadu Bawumia has paid an unannounced visit to a key government agency since assuming office.​

On January 18, 20017, Dr. Bawumia visited the Registrar General's Department to identify the bottlenecks bedeviling ​the state outfit, and also interacted with owners of businesses and Ghanaians who had gone  to the department to register their businesses.

He also paid another surprise visit to the Tema Port, to familiarize himself with the operations of the port, and hear at first hand the challenges facing players in the sector.​

Source:citifmonline.com​