Government tightens nozzle on unbudgeted spending

This is to be done using the Ghana Electronic Procurement System (GHANEPS), an electronic procurement platform, designed to automate procurement within the public sector.

“This would ensure commitment control such that without budget, no one, no entity will be able to commit to any form of procurement without budget,” said Mr. Hayford Amoh, a Senior Technical Advisor, and a Director of Internal Audit at the Ministry of Finance.

Representing the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta at the recent launch of the Public Financial Management Compliance League Table (PFMCLT), he observed that the major fiscal challenge facing public institutions was commitment control where agencies could commit government without the appropriate budgetary allocation.

He said the Ministry would ensure value for money on all government projects especially those conducted under sole source procurement.

“The Ministry wants to go all out to resource internal auditors to ensure the prevention of corruption or any form of expenditure malfeasance rather than detecting them through the audit of the Auditor General,” he said.

In a separate interview with the Ghana News Agency, (GNA) Mr Amoh indicated that the deadline for complete integration has been set from the end of first quarter to the end of second quarter thus June, this year.

Upon completion, he said, public institutions would also be compelled to use only the e-procurement platform for procurement activities since budgeting and payments were done through the GIFMIS.

According to the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), 76 per cent of 430 entities rolled onto the electronic procurement system do not the use the system that was launched in 2019.

The e-procurement system was implemented under the e-transform project of the Ministry of Communication with funding from the World Bank.

Source: GNA