SCHOLARSHIPS FOR STUDENTS STUDYING PROCUREMENT COURSES (PAGE 23)

Story: Nana Konadu Agyeman, Koforidua

THE Government has secured $2.3 million from the Millennium Development Authority (MDA) to offer scholarships to students who will enrol and study procurement courses in polytechnics in the country.
The aim is to produce competent graduates who would offer technical procurement advice and assistance to the procurement units of the various senior high schools in the country to ensure effective procurement management practices.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority, Mr Adjenim Boateng Adjei, made this known at a day’s workshop to educate heads of senior high schools in the Greater Accra, Eastern and the Volta regions at Koforidua on the Procurement Law and a new procurement concept known as Framework Agreement.
The workshop also attracted participants from the regional co-ordinating councils, ministries, departments and agencies, as well as officials of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools in the three regions.
Mr Adjei said the successful implementation of the new concept would maximise value for money for all procurements carried out under the Public Procurement Act to ensure accountability, transparency and fairness on orders, goods or services.
The framework agreement, which would be implemented in two phases, seeks to bring together a number of high schools in a particular geographical area to form a cluster to enable them to order the same goods or services directly from organised suppliers on competitive prices.
The CEO said over the years, various schools had had almost the same common needs but had paid for such goods or services from diverse suppliers at different prices.
That, he noted, had been a major concern to the government, hence the need to cluster a number of schools in a particular geographical area to procure the same services or goods to “obtain the best value for money.”
According to Mr Adjei, as part of the implementation process of the new procurement laws and the new concept, various schools were required to establish a specific procurement unit to be manned by procurement graduates from the polytechnics, including interns.
“It is our expectation that such graduates will help you to adhere to proper procurement management practices to ensure that you do not fall foul of the Procurement Law,” he said.
The CEO pointed out that to ensure the successful implementation of the new procurement concept, his outfit had established a number of zonal offices across the country to provide appropriate advice to procurement officers of schools.
During an open forum, some of the school heads urged the Public Procurement Authority to organise further training workshops for them to gain a better insight into the new procurement concept, which they said, would enable them to adhere to proper procurement management procedures.