Public Procurement Law: its applications on Goods, Works and Services: Case Study of Bosomtwe District Assembly

Abstract

The introduction of Public Financial Management Reform Programme (PUFMARP) in 1996 was purposely to take care of procurement of goods, works and services in the country. This policy was also made to improve and regulate the overall public financial expenditure in Ghana. However, the policy was fraught with operational irregularities and weaknesses such as; lack of comprehensive legal regime to safeguard the integrity of public procurement policy, no technical expertise, absence of clearly defined roles and responsible of  procurement practices. In addition, there were economic pressures alluded to the revision of the 1996 policy. These included; huge and unattainable foreign debts, excessive budget deficits, huge contractual payment arrears, poor construction performance, corruption and pressure from international financial institutions forced the government to become committed to the reform of public procurement which culminated in the passage of the Public Procurement Act 2003 (Act 663). Public Procurement is the process by which government purchases goods, works and services using public funds.The Public Procurement Act 2003 (Act 663) was enacted as an act of Parliament to provide for public procurement in Ghana. This has a direct impact on the successful delivery of government projects and public services, sound public financial management by achieving value for money in government expenditure, reducing corruption and encouraging private sector growth and investment. Procurement Act was to streamline and harmonise public procurement process in order to secure judicious, economic and efficient use of public funds by ensuring fairness, transparency and non-discriminatory in such procurement practices. The study was concerned on public procurement law: its applications on goods, works and services. Hence the objective of researchers were to determine whether or not Bosomtwe District Assembly (BDA) complies to the application of Public Procurement Act 2003 on goods, works and services and also ascertain problems the Assembly encounters in the application of the procurement Law.

The research adopts case study of impact of the Public Procurement Act on the procurement of goods, works and services. This is an exploratory study which seeks to find out what is happening, to seek insight, to ask questions and to assess phenomenon in a new light (Robson, 2002). The researchers adopted purposive random sampling technique for the study. Questionnaires, interviews and observations were the research instruments used for the collection of the data. A total number of 50 respondents were selected from the Bosomtwe District Assembly. Researchers used Microsoft excel for the data analyses, employing the Performance Assessment System Model (PAS).

Keywords: Performance Assessment System Model (PASM), Tender Opportunities, Tender Invitation, Public Financial Management Reform Programme