Amend the Procurement Act to make it mandatory - PEF

Accra, Dec. 19, GNA - The Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF) on Tuesday called for an amendment of the Procurement Law to make it mandatory for procurement entities to grant the margin of preference for domestic contractors and suppliers.

Proposing the amendment at a day's workshop in Accra, Dr Osei Boeh-Ocansey, Director of PEF, said elsewhere in the world, it was the Government that fought for the enforcement of margins of preference under procurement acts.

He said guidelines had been drawn up for the application of the margins of preference by procurement entities but asked whether they were obliged by law to apply them.

Dr Boeh-Ocansey said most Ghanaian enterprises such as local contractors and service providers found it difficult to benefit from Government business because they were marginally uncompetitive in their contract pricing when compared to their foreign counterparts. "As a result they are unable to accumulate experience and wealth to develop and grow their business," he said.

He announced that the Foundation had planned a series of workshops in Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi and Takoradi to discuss and arrive at a private sector position on the issue.

Making a presentation on how to make Ghana's margins of preference mandatory, Mr Daniel Kwagbenu, a consultant, said if the purpose was to develop local industries as enshrined in the Act; then there was the need to see to its enforcement.

He cited case studies from Malaysia and India and said both countries had long used significant preferences in public procurement to further sensitive developmental policies that were targeted at improving indigenous companies.

Mr Kwagbenu said in some sectors such as Information Communication and Technology, India had provisions in its Act where only local companies were allowed to bid for contracts. He said the size of Ghana's public procurement market in 2005 was 963 million dollars given that the Government spent nine per cent of its Gross Domestic Product for procurement activities that year.