Author: Frank Mante, LLM, MBA, MCIPS, CMILT, CPSM
Country Manager, Crown Agents Ghana Ltd
Abstract
The quest to achieve Value for Money (VFM), is cardinal and a central theme in every procurement regime and without doubt, has become a topical issue in recent public procurement discourse in Ghana. It is pertinent to note that, even though VFM as a policy objective in public procurement is consistently being referred to in public procurement discourse in Ghana, it is revealing to note that it is not specifically cited as one of the policy objectives of public procurement under section 2 of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) (As Amended). For clarity, section 2 of this Act is reproduced hereunder ‘‘the object of the Authority is to harmonise the processes of public procurement in the public service to secure a judicious, economic and efficient use of state resources in public procurement and ensure that public procurement is carried out in a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory, environmentally and socially sustainable manner’’. This notwithstanding, VFM which is usually described as the ultimate objective of every procurement system, is referred to in many of our procurement literature. To put this into context, the words economic and efficient as stated above, are construed to mean VFM. Thus, VFM consists of economy, efficiency and indeed, one can add effectiveness in procurement. Please note that unless otherwise stated, all references stated in this article, are in respect of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) (As Amended).
Keyword: Value for Money, Public Procurement, Procurement Auditing, Procurement Tendering
