William Akoto Oppong
Department of Procurement
Business University of Costa Rica
School of Finance & Financial Management
Email: waoppong@gmail.com
Abstract
This research studied the impact of public procurement reforms on services delivery in public enterprises, a case study of Accra Metropolitan. the objectives of the study include; To establish the procurement systems that were in place before the public procurement reforms in Ghana; to assess the Government Public Procurement Reforms that was put in place in 1997 in Ghana; to identify the impact of Public Procurement Reforms on services delivery in Ghana and to establish the factors affecting service delivery in Accra Metropolitan. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires. The study used stratified and purposive sampling techniques to draw representative samples and 100 respondents were involved in the study. The study sampled 100 respondents, 42 of whom were Local government leaders and employees, 50 procurement professionals and non-professionals, and 8 providers. These respondents were drawn from the three divisions and the Metropolitan headquarters. The research established the procurement systems that were in place before the public procurement reforms, it assessed the Government Public Procurement Reforms that were put in place and identified the impact of Public Procurement Reforms on Accra Metropolitan. Also the study undertook to examine the roles of different stakeholder in procurement planning and the following were found out; defining procurement requirements, dividing requirements allocated to a single procurement process into separate lots, integration of the diverse decision and activities, ensuring availability of sufficient funds to run the plans, developing of proposals and evaluation of potential service providers. Some factors were found to be affecting service delivery and these included the following corruption, lack of finances, the challenge of getting the right service provider, limited skilled personnel, also poor communication. The findings of this study revealed that there is a positive impact of public procurement reforms on procuring and disposing entities. It was found out that the CTB was the main overseer of the procurement process in Ghana before the reforms; the reforms in place include: formation of the municipal contracts committee, the creation and staffing of a procurement unit among others, though the reforms are still incomplete due to serious capacity bottlenecks. The study also recommends the following; Corruption should be reduced by enforcing of strict rules and giving penalties, training the recruited workers, the procurement team should carryout research so as to find out a reliable service. In light of these findings, it was recommended that the government should harmonize the rules and regulations and carry out systematic review of the existing legal framework, it should also focus on fighting corruption in public procurement and further training is required for Local government authorities to enhance clear understanding of the PPA Act No. 1 of 2003 to its full potential as a finance and budget control mechanism.
Keywords: Public Procurement Reforms, Procurement Systems, Procurement Quality Public Sector Procurement
