ASSESSING PROCUREMENT COMMITTEES AND PROCURMEENT LAWS IN THE NORTHERN REGION OF GHANA

Abstract

Millions of dollars get wasted due to inefficient and ineffective procurement structures, committees, policies and procedures. Against this backdrop the study assessed procurement committees and procurement laws in the northern region of Ghana by specifically determining the level at which the procurement committees comply with the contract value threshold in the Northern region, examining whether there are significant differences in the use procurement methods in reducing corruption and to identify the challenges confronting the procurement committees in complying with the contract value threshold. The study adopted mixed research design with a sample size of 127. The study employed compliance index, one way ANOVA, and five points Likert Scale in addition to Kendall’s coefficient of concordance to achieve the three specific objectives.The study revealed that only four MMDAs namely Gusheigu Municipality, Kumbungu District, Mion District, and Saboba District have high compliance level with Kumbungu District having the highest compliance index (index of 0.81) among the MMDAs studied with the remaining MMDAs having moderate compliance. We found out that the overall compliance among the MMDAs in the Northern Region of Ghana of Ghana is moderate. Also,study revealed that there are statistically significance differences among the methods of procurement in reducing corruption. The study found out that Two Stage Tendering Method reduces corruption compared to other methods.The study further revealed that Political interference is the most pressing challenge while delay in the release of procurement reports being the least pressing challenge.The study recommends that procurement supervision at the MMDAs level should be strengthened by the Public Procurement Authority and the Ministry of Local Government.