The World Bank

STRENGTHENING PROCUREMENT
CAPACITIES IN DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES

OECD/DAC – WORLD BANK

ROUNDTABLE

Paris, 22-23 January 2003

PARTNERSHIP FOR TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT

Session 4

GHANA-SWITZERLAND
 Ghana/Swiss Partnership for Transparency and Accountability in Public
Procurement.

I. Background: Ghana’s efforts to reform public procurement

Ghana has, at its highest political level, decided to fundamentally reform its procurement
system to ensure that efficient, fair and transparent public procurement decisions are
made and that those making them are held properly accountable. Ghana’s efforts to
reform its procurement system are part of the Government’s effort to operationalize its
concept of good governance and push towards “zero tolerance” of corrupt practices.

In this context, Ghana has established, at the Ministry of Finance, a working group called
the “Public Procurement Oversight Group” (PPOG) which is chaired by the Chief
Director of the Ministry of Finance and composed of senior Government officials,
representatives of the private sector, procurement consultants and a representative of the
World Bank.

The PPOG has drafted a comprehensive “Public Procurement Act, 2002”, which has
been submitted to an extensive consultation mechanism with all stakeholders. The Public
Procurement Act is a “state of the art” procurement manual, that, if fully implemented,
will assure fair, efficient and transparent procurement decisions. The Act also contains
relevant details about the information, review and control mechanisms needed for the Act
to be properly carried out.

Cabinet is supposed to approve the Draft Act in the next weeks and Parliament is
expected to enact the Act into Legislation in early 2003.

The proposed project would accompany and reinforce the implementation of the new
law.

II. Outline of a Project proposal.

1. Project rationale

The purpose of the Ghana/OECD/Swiss project is to track the change process in

procurement processes in Ghana and help it achieve more transparent and accountable
procurement decisions. The project is intended to have immediate and longer-term
effects:

- An immediate improvement in the quality of specific procurement decisions in

Ghana;
- Helpful contributions to the setting up of a better performing procurement
system in Ghana in the long run.
Two interrelated actions are therefore proposed:

- Assistance in the implementation of concrete procurement process reforms on

the basis of forthcoming tenders in one agency/sector;
- Assistance in the setting up of a monitoring mechanism that assures
transparent and accountable procurement processes in Ghana.

These two activities are mutually reinforcing:

- Involvement in procurement processes at the level of an agency will help

Ghana identify the critical factors in the process on a pilot basis, as well as the
specific measures required to adapt and fine-tune the national monitoring
system;
- The national benchmarking and monitoring system will ensure that action at
the agency level does not result in creating just “an island of integrity”, but
becomes an integral part in the national effort to improve procurement
decisions.

2. General objectives of the project:

The project has three major objectives:

1. Contribute to the speedy and efficient introduction of a new public

procurement system that allows fair, transparent and efficient public
procurement thereby assuring value for money from development assistance
and private sector investments and a reduction in the level of corruption;

2. Contribute, through the sharing of the Ghanaian experience, to the

international effort to establish best practices for procurement procedures and
reform mechanisms – and potentially to help in the creation of a global public
procurement certification system;

3. Foster international recognition for Ghana’s efforts to establish efficient,

transparent and accountable procurement procedures, thereby generating a
process that will allow donor agencies to rely to a greater extent on national
procurement procedures to implement donor financed development projects.

3. Specific objectives of the project:

1. The establishment of an independent monitoring mechanism that will

accurately track the ongoing implementation of the reform process;
2. The provision of timely information on the progress of the reform;

3. The use of this information to report periodically on problems and develop

possible remedies to help achieve successful implementation of the reform
process; and

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 4. Through the OECD Roundtable process, the enrichment of the reform process
in Ghana so that it benefits from the lessons learned from wide international
experience.

4. Expected output and activities:

The project would have three specific types of outputs:

• To accompany the implementation of the procurement reform and of specific

procurement decisions in a transparent and accountable way for one
agency/sector considered being of particular importance to the development
process

• To set up an independent mechanism with representation from the major

stakeholders to monitor the implementation of the new procurement process

• To report to the Government and the OECD Round Table participants on the
lessons learned from the pilot and about the problems identified in the
implementation of the new law on the basis of the benchmarking surveys.

Some of the specific activities that would need to be carried out so these outputs
can be produced would include:

• Carrying out an awareness and information campaign for selected officers

involved in procurement;

• Assistance in the drafting and subsequent use of specific bidding documents,

particularly what evaluation criteria and methodologies should be used for
different requirements;

• Technical assistance, if and when required to fill important gaps in capacity;

• Establishment of a longer term development program that is aimed at

professionalizing the conduct of procurement in the given sector/agency;

• Assessment of the results and the lessons learned from the specific
procurement processes carried out during the pilot and suggesting any
improvements in the mechanism and/or the process so that they could be used
more broadly in Ghana, as well as elsewhere.

Recommendations on the implementation of the procurement law on the basis of

the problems identified in the benchmarking surveys

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5. The Independent Monitoring Mechanism:

An independent monitoring mechanism made up of representatives from a number

of the major stakeholders would be set up to track the implementation of the new
procurement process.

The activities of this mechanism would include:

• Initially collecting information on the process and results of the

procurement process so that the level of performance could be measured and
the level of compliance with the new procurement process by the various
procurement entities established. Three benchmarking surveys would be
undertaken:
− Baseline benchmarking: February/March 2003;
− Report to Government/OECD on results of first year benchmarking and
discussion about activities for 2004: January 2004;
− Evaluation report of first two year implementation of the new law and
analysis of experiences: December 2004.

• Establishment of monitoring capacity within the Ghanaian structure,

including transfer of technology and training of the people involved.

• Periodic reports to the Government on issues identified and proposed

remedial actions.

• Analytical reports to OECD/DAC and integration of the Ghana experience

into the international effort towards improving public procurement:
− The preparation of reports to DAC;
− Suggestions to Ghana on the basis of the work done in OECD.
− A final report on the experience of Ghana with recommendations on
possible certification requirements.