Tamale: Workshop Held for Heads of Procurement Units In Local Gov't Service

The National Office of the Head of the Local Government Service has commenced a series of training for Heads of Procurement Units in the Local Government Service in the Northern Regional capital, Tamale. 

The training was scheduled to further take place at four (4) zonal centres Ho, Ejisu and Elmina respectively.

The workshop is aimed to sharpen the skills and improve the knowledge of the officers to enable them to undertake procurement activities in line with the recently revised guidelines and regulations. 

The Head of the Local Government Service, Ing. Dr Nana Ato Arthur at the opening ceremony with officers from the five region's of the North underscored the important role of procurement in the conduct of government business and its implication for public financial management. 

He urged the officers to at all times seek fairness, transparency and non-discrimination in procurement processes in order to promote a competitive local industry and increase the confidence of all stakeholders. 

He implored procurement officers to be the vanguard of the Public Procurement Act to reduce to the barest minimum all forms of displacement in the course of their duty.

This according to him will nip in the bad issues of conflict of interest, procedural impropriety and non-adherence to the Annual Action Plan and Budget of the Entity concerned.

Dr Arthur reiterated the Services’ commitment to implement a holistic capacity building programme that will equip all staff across the board with skills and competencies and ensure they are abreast of current trends to give off their best in the performance of their roles. 

He disclosed that efforts are underway to bring together Chief Executives, Coordinating Directors, Procurement, Finance Officers as well as Engineers and Internal Auditors for a similar training as part of measures to reduce infractions captured in the Auditor-Generals report.

The Northern Regional Coordinating Director, Alhaji Alhassan Issahaku advised the procurement officers to exhibit professionalism in the discharge of duties and adhere to the laid down procurement processes and. 

The Acting Chief Executive of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) entreated participants to fully utilize the knowledge and skills acquired at the training to improve service delivery.

The training featured technical sessions facilitated by experienced officers from the PPA. 

Topics to be treated include procurement rules and methods; procurement planning and standard tender documents; and practical hands-on preparation of web-based procurement plans and standard tender documents.

Other topics to be covered are Evaluation of Tender; preparation of evaluation Reports and recommendation; Supplier validation check on PPA database; management of stakeholders in procurement at the local level and Preparation of letters and minutes of meetings, evaluation panel and tender opening. 

The training workshop at Tamale is concurrently taking place in Ho and is the first of a series of training being organised by the OHLGS to build the capacities of three hundred and thirty-six (336) procurement officers in the LGS. 

A similar training would be held for officers in the Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Ashanti, Western North, Western, Central, and Greater Accra Regions.

Nurudeen Ibrahim, North East