Mr. David Ofosu-Dorte, Executive Director of the General Law Consult has described the current procurement bill as full of ambiguities and contradictions, which were recipe for disaster.
"The public procurement bill as its stands now approbates and probates as well as frowns on the existing country's law which when passed would be chaotic," he said.
Making his intervention last Wednesday at a round table discussion organized by the Third World Network (TWN) an international advocacy group, Mr Ofosu-Dorte quoted many clauses of the bill and questioned its legal ramifications as well as its philosophy.
The bill in question is on procurement structures and provides for the administration and institutional arrangements for procurement of goods, works and services financed in whole or in part from public funds.
It is intended to revoke the District Tender Board Regulations, 1995 (L.I. 1606), repeal the Ghana National Procurement Agency Decree, 1976 (SMCD 55) and the Ghana Supply Commission Law, 1990 (PNDCL. 245).
Mr Ofosu-Dorte said; "Unless I have a wrong copy of the bill, because I have to cross check from parliament and if what I have is the right copy then I am quite surprised".
He also said public procurement practice must be sector specific but the current bill had attempted to put everything under one body, which would not augur well for the country.
Mr Ofosu-Dorte questioned the vast functions of the procurement board and said with careful analysis one found it difficult to tell whether it was the procurement entity or the court that should determine what would be contrary to law saying, "this is in clause 27 section 4 (a) of the bill.
According to him there was no clear distinction between some key terminologies such as suppliers, consultants and contractors in the bill.
"The operational definitions of such key terms under interpretation in clause 96 were at times used in certain sections as if they all mean the same, for instance the phrase in clause 75 section 3 start with consultant but ends with suppliers when both term are different," Mr Ofosu-Dorte said.
He said in Schedule 2 under "Regional Tender Review Board" the figure ten has been stated as if should an eleventh region be created tomorrow, it would not have a review tender board.
Mr Ofosu-Dorte also said the bill did not recognize domestic preference and did not address the issue of delay in payment as well as the quoting of the price for a contract had no validity period.
To him there was the need to review the draft bill with a clear philosophy that would bring some meat to the procurement practice that most people envisaged.
Mr Hermann Chinery-Hesse, of the Soft Tribe, a private software company in his contribution expressed disappointment about a recent meeting held with Parliamentarians saying, "Most of the members of Parliament seemed not to be interested in the procurement bill issue".
According to him the actions of the Minister of Finance with regard to the TWN positions that the bill as it stood now would give an overwhelming advantage to foreign procurement firms, clearly indicating the urgency by which some key people wanted the bill to be passed.
"We should try to impress Ghanaians and not foreigners. I found the Ministers statement surprising so I pointed out that we are not in the colonial era and we have to help ourselves as Ghanaians.
"I don't think America can have a bill and be interested in protecting Ghana, that is what we should do," Mr Chinery-Hesse said.
Mr. Cletus Kosiba, Director Policy and Communications of the Association of Ghana Industry (AGI) said, "There appeared to be some urgency on the part of the drafters of the bill to meet certain provisions of the bill."
He said the bill was silent on domestic industries, and there was no provision to ensure that there would be transfer of technology by foreign procurement firms adding, "once the fundamental principles are flawed there is the need to amend the bill.
"The bill should be explicit in stating the fact that there is a policy document to give opportunity to local industries," he said.
Dr. Yao Graham of the TWN, who chaired the discussion noted that the procurement law is one of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HPIC) Initiative completion point conditionality that was dictating the trend of the promoters.
This, he said, Ghana had had to come out with the law by June in order to meet the target set by the Breton Woods Institutions under the Initiative.
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