The President, John Dramani Mahama, has directed the Minister for Roads and Highways, Governs Kwame Agbodza to give a detailed response to the Fourth Estate’s expose of road contracts given through sole/single source procurement under the Big Push Programme.
The President acknowledged during a Presidential Dialogue with Civil Society Organization that his office had seen snippets of the report and requested the full copy from the Fourth Estate for further scrutiny.
“Although we have received snippets of the investigation on the media, I have instructed my office to obtain the full detailed report from the Fourth Estate and to conduct the study of the various allegations presented in the report.
“We are also requesting the Minister for Roads and Highways to present a detailed response to those allegations made there in, in order to inform government’s action,” he said.
The President further stated that his government believes that sole sourcing ought to be done in an open and transparent manner.
“While sole sourcing is legal in certain circumstances under our current procurement law, we all agree that open, transparent tenders are always preferable for achieving competitive pricing and value for money,” he said.
Governs Kwame Agbodza has been under intense scrutiny following reports by the Fourth Estate that the Roads and Highways Ministry has sole sourced 81 out of 107 road contracts which it awarded in the last 11 months under government’s flagship Big Push Programme.
These contracts, according to the Fourth Estate, are worth over GHS73 billion.
The decision of the Ministry contravenes Section 40 (1) of the Public Procurement Law (Act 663), which prescribes that sole sourcing can only be done in exceptional cases.
Act 663 lists exceptional circumstances to include where goods, works, or services are only available from a particular supplier or contractor who has exclusive rights to them.
The law also makes room for sole-sourcing only when there is an urgent need for the goods, works, or services during catastrophic moments or emergencies during which using other procurement methods would be impractical.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
