Eric Ekow Tawiah Ghansah
(MSc. PSCM, DCIPS, BSc. PSCM, HND PS, Cert. LTM)
Ghana Institute of Management & Public Administration (GIMPA)
Abstract
Business Executives in the private sector recognized long ago that effective procurement management can support their number one strategic goal; profitability. In contrast, elected officials and senior technocrats in government are only now beginning to recognize that effective procurement management can support the strategic goals of public sector enterprises and service delivery. Those strategic goals, which best practice procurement management unquestionably can support, include or should include making ends meet in dire financial circumstances and responding timely in the wake of natural disasters. In today’s global economy of competition in the private sector and ever-shrinking budgets in the public sector, procurement strategy is becoming increasingly important. This is especially true given that over the last decade goods and service costs account for more than 60% of the total costs for most organizations (Degrave, Roodhooft & van Doveren, 2005). In the public sector, over the same time span, the total financial activities are estimated to be may be as great as 10-20% of the gross national product (Mori & Doni, 2010). Consequently, the selection of effective procurement strategies can lead to, among other things, significant cost savings. Surprisingly, in both the public and private sectors, procurement has been an undervalued activity in terms of its contribution to organization performance improvement and value for money management (Degraeve, Roodhooft & van Doveren, 2005). Though public procurement is a salient government function, it has historically been a neglected area of academic research (Thai, 2001). However, a trend has emerged as the study of public sector procurement has become more present in academic research. A number of authors proposed that the procurement strategies and purchasing management practices, in the private sector could be applied the public sector. (Johnson, Leenders & McCue, 2003; Murray, 2007 Thai, 2005). Nevertheless, cross sector application is not a “cut and paste” process given the fundamental differences between the private and public sector goals and purpose (McCue and Pitzer, 2005).
Keywords: Primary production, wetlands, trophic levels and seasonal fluctuations.
