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The Public Procurement Authority (PPA) has been given approval by Parliament to charge nominal fees on procurement of contracts applications, tender notices and customised training for procuring entities.

“In acknowledgment of the authority’s efforts to seek alternative sources of funding for its operations, Parliament approved the authority’s proposals to generate funds from some of its activities,” the Chief Executive Officer, of PPA Mr Agyenim Boateng Adjei told reporters on Friday.

He said the service charges was not tantamount to the procurement regulatory body going commercial but represented a token to help it carry out its mandated responsibilities to ensure sufficient protection of public funds.
The staff are poorly paid, he said, a situation that did not attract professionals with requisite expertise into the field to do due diligence in procurement audits.

“If personnel of such an apex body with an oversight responsibility to supervise the conduct of procurement within the entire public sector are so poorly paid, I can imagine the zeal they will muster to diligently carry out their mandate,” he said.

He said lack of funding and delays of government releases forced the authority to rely on donor funding for the implementation and performance of critical regulatory functions with the donors dictating the terms and pace.

Section 22 (4) of the amendment Act, 2016 Act 914 “mandate procuring entities to post all tender notices on the Authority`s website at a fee while facilitating fees for training are also required of procuring entities.

He said a number of initiatives had been adopted to reposition the authority to better perform its mandate to ensure value for money with regards to procurement of public goods and services which account for about 60 per cent of government revenue aside emoluments.

“The authority is in the process of establishing two purpose driven operational units and three operation activities to enhance the credibility of our operations and processes,” he said.

The units includes due diligence or value for money, procurement audit, e-government procurement, procurement planning and expenditure management and contract management.