1Eric Boafo Dadzie | 2Lord Emmanuel Yamoah | 3Isaac Yornu
1,2Department of Purchasing & Supply, Takoradi Technical University
3Procurement Directorate, Accra Technical University
Abstract
An effective means of cost reduction in the award of contract is by allowing all able or qualified contractors or suppliers to bid or tender for contracts (competitive tendering) per section 35(1) of Act 663. It can be deduced from the above statement that the competitive tendering method will provide a range of variety of contractors with variety of goods, works and services within which an organization can select the best available option, all things being equal. However, the opposite is envisaged in most public sector organizations these days as contracts are being awarded to some incompetent contractors who through dubious means find their ways into the procurement net and misappropriate state funds allocated to them in the name of contact deals.
The research work therefore seeks to assess the effectiveness of competitive tendering on cost reduction in public sector procurement specifically at the Sekondi – Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly. Furthermore, it will interest my readers to know that the government of Ghana is incurring many losses as a result of these selfish-contractors and their respective selfish-procurement officers in these District Assemblies since monies which should have been used to put up more infrastructural facilities are nowadays used for rehabilitations of old projects as well as for the completion of abandoned works. More so the interference of some political figures in the whole tendering process itself up to the award stage so to say makes the process vulnerable since the best tendering procedures are compromised. This study therefore seeks to examine the effectiveness of using competitive tendering to reduce cost in public procurement.
The study revealed that the challenges faced by Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly in contract award includes; lengthy time frame, compliance with the procurement act in line with competitive tendering, high cost of advertisement, unethical behaviors of some panel. This study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of competitive tendering on cost reduction at Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly. According to the findings, researchers can conclude that effective competitive tendering has a big impact on cost reduction in the entity. Moreover, the study ascertained that the entity is faced with quite a number of challenges and competent measures need to be acquired to take the edge off the challenges in awarding contract.
Keywords: Cost Reduction | Competitive Tendering | Procurement Practices | Tendering Rules
