E-Procurement as an Alternate Paradigm to the Challenges of Procuring Goods and Services in the Public Sector - A Case Study of Ghana Cocoa Board

Abstract

The main purpose of the research was to identify challenges that procurement officers encounter in their day to day activities of procuring goods and services for their organization. Ghana Cocoa Board was used as a case study and an extensive study conducted on e-procurement to assess if it would serve as a better alternative to the manual way of procuring items and services in public institutions. Scholarly articles were reviewed to provide an empirical insight into the impact of using e-procurement in institutions. Questionnaires and interviews were used to assess the views of the respondents. Upon collecting the data and analyzing the results, the findings of the study revealed that procurement officers were faced with challenges such as long lead-times in the procurement of goods and services, delay in the execution of task and lack of transparency in the procurement process. Also the procurement officers and the staff members interviewed were of the view that e-procurement would be better alternative to the manual procedure used for procuring goods and services. The researchers recommended that the Ghana Public Procurement Authority (PPA) should adopt pragmatic steps towards educating procurement officers on the value of e-procurement and subsequently (the PPA) should consider encouraging all procurement entities to adopt e-procurement for the purchasing of goods rather than the manual method of procurement.

Keywords: e-Procurement, Transparency, Public Procurement Authority (PPA).