The Public Procurement Authority (PPA), as part of processes to accelerate the quest to fully implement the Ghana Electronic Procurement System (GHANEPS), has engaged members of the national steering committee to enhance their expertise on the platform’s functions.

The group is mandated to oversee a successful operationalization and digitization of the GHANEPS initiative. Membership of the committee, who are drawn from public and private sector as well as civil society organizations, have been tasked by the PPA to ensure that the entire public procurement processes in Ghana is fully digitized by October 2023.

The authority explained that it is absolutely critical for entities to take advantage of all the support and grace period of transition, stating: “Very soon, sanctions will be applicable to those who do not use the system, and training will no longer be free”.

Full digitization of procurement processes, according to the PPA, applies to all methods of public procurement: including tender publication, tender submission by service providers, tender opening, tender evaluation, award of contracts, and management of contracts will all be done electronically.

Speaking to B&FT at the capacity building workshop for the national steering committee of GHANEPS, Deputy CEO of PPA Kwame Prempeh indicated that the system can further be used to electronically dispose of goods through auction processes.

The GHANEP, which was launched in April 2019 with the second phase beginning in November of the same year, aims to onboard all government entities to the system by the October 2023 deadline.

Mr. Prempeh mentioned that the PPA has set up a dedicated secretariat, whose responsibility is to ensure a smooth transition for government entities as well as the private sector in a phased-rollout procedure. “Every month, a set of entities are taken through the rollout processes which commence with stakeholder engagement, and training and onsite support when entities start using the system,” he said.

Indeed, 315 stakeholder engagements have so far been held by the PPA, with 303 of the entities fully gone through the training. 275 of those entities which have gone through training, according to the PPA, are already set up and live on the GHANEPS platform.

A member of the GHANEPS steering committee, Kwame Jantuah, assured that the system has been developed with full consideration for the necessary security concerns. “Inasmuch as the system is robust, it is also designed to ensure that CEOs, and MDs of government institutions who may have personal interests in procurement processes, are checked with all risk-mitigating factors of the GHANEPS,” Mr. Jantuah indicated.