GNPC breached Public Procurement Law – Auditor-General

The 2020 Auditor-General’s report has cited Management of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) for breaching the Public Procurement Law.

According to the report GNPC signed and awarded five international business contracts between 2015 to 2018 without the necessary Parliamentary approval.

The report said in contrast to Article 181(5) of the 1992 Constitution, GNPC signed and awarded five international business contracts totally US$34,165,235.15 and £464,963.13 to five foreign suppliers or contractors using the Single-Source method in four of those transactions.

According to the report in one instance, GNPC used the Restricted Tendering method without seeking the necessary Parliamentary approvals.

The report, therefore, recommended that the Management of GNPC should be sanctioned in accordance with Section 92 of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) as amended for breaching the Public Procurement Law.

According to the report, contrary to Section 42 (1b) of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) as amended, the GNPC used the Request For Quotation (RFQ) method in procurements of goods with contract values that exceeded the threshold for RFQ.

Thus, it urged Management to always observe the tenets of the Public Procurement Law, and further called for the sanctioning of the officials (the Chief executive, Head of Finance and the Head of Procurement) who sanctioned the transactions in accordance with Section 92 of Act 663 as amended.

“GNPC in May, 2015 procured Desktop Computers, Laptop Computers, Geo-Workstations, UPS, and Monitors for Workstations from Perfect Business Systems through Single Source arrangement without obtaining the requisite approvals from the Board of the Public Procurement Authority and that of the Ministerial Tender Review Board (MTRB),” the report revealed.

Hence, it recommended for the appropriate sanctions in accordance with Section 92 of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) as amended to be meted to the Management of GNPC for breach of the procurement law.

According to the Auditor-General, in disregard for Clause 2 & 3 of Article 187 of the 1992 Constitution as well as Section 33 (1) of the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584), its request to review some procurement-related records and documents were not met by Management of GNPC.

“We advised Management to retrieve the document involved and forward them for our audit review. Failure of which, sanctions should be invoked against Management in accordance with Section 98 of the PFM Act 2016, for financial indiscipline,” the Auditor-General warned.