Mr. Henry Kerali, the Country Director of the World Bank, says, Ghana will save more than US$100 million, an equivalent of two percent of the country’s gross domestic product annually, for implementing the e-Procurement System.
He said the e-Procurement System was a landmark project that would improve fairness, transparency, and efficiency in the public sector and reduce the cost of transactions for service providers.
The World Bank signed a US$97 million financing agreement with the government of Ghana in 2014 towards the implementation of the e-Transform Procurement Project.
Mr. Kerali said this in an address at the launch of the Ghana Electronic Procurement System (GHANEPS) in Accra under the theme: “Rising to a New Dawn in Public Procurementâ€.
Mr. Kerali noted that e-Procurement System would enhance productivity since the electronic presentation of records or submission of tenders would eliminate manual work and reduce cost.
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The World Bank Country Director urged all public agencies to take advantage of the system to transform their operations, which would inure to the benefit of the people.
Mr. Kerali, thus, re-affirmed the Bank’s commitment to supporting the Government’s vision of achieving the “Ghana Beyond Aid†agenda, adding that, it would continue to provide technical support towards the full implementation of the system to improve the ease of doing business.
Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister of Communications, for her part, said the e-Procurement system would ensure transparency and reduce corruption in the country.
“Online government procurement increases transparency and holds government more accountable in spending the taxpayers’ money in addition to the reduction of potential fraud and corruption,†she emphasised.
Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful said the electronic platform would provide prospective suppliers with full information concerning government contracts and vis-Ã -vis government institutions would receive adequate information about potential suppliers or contractors.
She also said the platform would play a critical role in reducing prices of contracts and government expenditure.
“We will like to see the Electronic Government Project contributing to achieving major efficiency in the reduction of prices by at least 10 to 20 percent due to increase competitiveness, reduction in transaction cost by about 50 percent and a reduction of about 20 to 30 percent of public expenditures,†the Minister said.
Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful said the Ministry was working with the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies to champion the digitisation agenda in order to catch up with the world, adding that her outfit was working with the Ghana Immigration Service to roll-out an e-immigration system for border control, visa on arrival and other immigration services.
She added that Parliament would soon launch e-parliament system and, thus, reiterated the Ministry’s commitment towards the Public Procurement Authority to migrate all agencies onto the system.
Source: GNA