An assessment of the challenges of the public procurement act on a Metropolitan Assembly: the case of Tamale Metropolitan Assembly

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2008-08-19
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An effective public procurement system is essential for good governance. A poor procurement system results in higher costs to government and the public. It delays project implementation which further increases costs, leads to poor project performance and delays the delivery of benefits to the beneficiaries. Procurement problems also increase scope for corruption, generate more complaints and raise concerns about the integrity of the procurement process. And finally, they discourage good firms (both national and foreign) from participating in bidding, thus deprive the country from receiving better prices and goods, works and services of better quality. Huge and unsustainable foreign debt, excessive budget deficits, huge contractual payment arrears, poor construction performance, corruption and pressure from international financial institutions, forced the government to commit to a reform of public procurement, which culminated in the passing of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663). This study outlines the events leading to, and features of, the public procurement reform in Ghana and analyses the unique challenges it presents. The study concludes that while the Procurement Act sets out the legal, institutional and regulatory framework to secure fiscal transparency and public accountability, the sole reliance on the few existing personnel who have little or no training at all limits the scope for the value for money objective to be achievable. Expanding reforms to cover procurement and project delivery methods and strategies, with a focus on 'best value', will increase the potential and likelihood of achieving value for money in public procurement in Ghana iii Extensive literature was reviewed into researches that have been done on various procurement laws especially the situation of District Assemblies and other relevant issues therein as to the implementation of decentralization. The study revealed that all the processes of procurement in the Assembly were tailored to meet the requirement of the Procurement Act (Act 663), however, issues such as inadequate personnel and untimely release of funds from central government impedes the smooth implementation of the Act in the Metropolitan Assembly.
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A dissertation submitted to the School of Business, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of Master of Business Administration Degree, 2008
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