Procurement breaches, a key cause of corruption in Ghana - Civil Societies

The Local Chapter of Transparency International (TI), Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) and the Ghana Anti-corruption Coalition have called on the government to place a premium on checking procurement breaches in the various state institutions as it continues to hamper the country’s effort in tackling corruption. Mypurefmonline.com reports.

In a media engagement in Kumasi on ‘Corruption risk management’, Monday, February 10, 2020, sponsored by Star Ghana Foundation, the GII in partnership with the Ghana Anti-corruption Coalition (GACC) educated the media personnel in identifying the vulnerabilities in the system to guide their probing of national issues especially in areas of Health, Education and Justice delivery.

The Executive Secretary of the GACC, Mrs. Beauty Emefa Narteh in her presentation stressed that in the country’s quest to conquer the corruption canker, the government, journalists and anti-corruption stake holders should focus more on procurement processes especially in the health and education sector as their research identifies a considerable leak in those areas.

“In our quest to create anti-corruption voices in the implementation of the SDG’s with the aim of reducing corruption in the implementation of SDG’s 3, 4, and 16, which have to do with Health, Education and promotion of strong institutions for sustainable development, especially increased access to justice and effective accountable and inclusive institutions, I would like the media and anti-corruption investigative agents to stress on procurement breaches in the country to help address a major challenge of the corruption war. We are shortchanged more in these areas as the issue of sole sourcing and misprocurement continues to drain the country of its revenue and value for money.” She told participants of the event.

She advocated for a robust national anti-corruption strategy through the establishment of complaints units and training of judges and procurement investigators in white color crimes to mitigate the leakages and the continuous mulcting of the country through ‘misprocurement’ and sole sourcing.

Corruption continues to be a major national issue. Scores blame the weak nature of the country’s institutions as a major setback in the anti graft war.