Government will enforce Public Procurement Act – Minister
The Government would strictly enforce the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 921) as amended by Public Procurement (Amendment) Act, 2016 (Act 914).
“Especially with regard to sole sourcing, which has proven to pose significant risks to fiscal policy management,” the Minister of Finance has said.
Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance said to ensure that public procurements were done within budgetary constraint, government strengthen the procurement process by introducing another level of approval for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies(MMDAs).
“To this end, sole sourced procurements by MDAs and MMDAs beyond the threshold of GHc50 million would be subject to explicit approval by Cabinet before submission to the Public Procurement Authority for consideration and approval,” he said.
Mr Ofori-Atta stated during the presentation of the government’s 2017 budget to Parliament in Accra on Thursday.
The Finance Minister said as a sign of Government’s commitment to ensuring public debt sustainability within the framework of the Public Financial Management Act, the debt management strategy in 2017 envisaged the introduction of new instruments to further lengthen the maturity profile of public debt.
He said that would reduce cost and risk factors associated with the debt portfolio through effective liability management, and support the development of the capital market.
On liability management, Mr Ofori-Atta said Government would continue to implement sound liability management initiatives aimed at reducing interest cost and mitigating interest rate risk associated with the current debt portfolio.
“This would involve the implementation of a wide variety of operations, including the buy-back of existing debt using Sinking Fund Account, interest rate hedging and the use of structured financial instruments, as market conditions permit,” he said.
Mr Ofori-Atta observed that on the implementation of a credit risk assessment framework for State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) the current financial state and governance structures of the SOEs, particularly, in the energy Sector was worrying.
“This continues to pose challenges for fiscal policy outcomes. In this regard, government will implement a credit risk assessment framework to guide SOE borrowing and continue to ensure that necessary security structures and instruments are put in place by the SOEs to ensure they honour their debt obligations,” he said.
He indicated that government would establish a single entity with oversight responsibility of the SOEs adding that; “This forms part of broader SOE reforms aimed at consolidating the State’s ownership role, improve performance and ensure effective and efficient service delivery by SOEs,” he said.
Source: GNA