Story by Hannah Dadzie.
The Chartered Institute of Supply Chain Management, Ghana (CISCM), has asked government and organisations to work to eliminate judgment debts in the country. The institute expressed worry that individuals whose actions have caused the nation to pay judgement debts are not sanctioned.
Speaking at a meeting with members of CISCM to chart a path for the future of the institute, Vice President, Mr Justice Awuku-Sao said negligent and incompetent teams who negotiate transactions contribute greatly to the country incurring judgement debts. He said this development is retarding the growth of the economy.
The meeting discussed a wide range of issues including judgement debts, abandonment of projects especially road works anytime there is change in government, among others.
Stressing on the issue of judgment debts, Mr Awuku Sao said most judgement debts occur due to blatant disregard for public procurement laws, illegal abrogation of contracts, lack of teamwork, negligence and ignorance. He said these have resulted in the payment of huge sums from the public coffers. He said such acts must thoroughly be investigated, adding that perpetrators must not go unpunished.
“The challenge is that we don’t have a national agenda, so one party does this and the other decides not to continue. However, if we have a national agenda projects would continue and wouldn’t be an NDC or NPP thing,” he said
“There should be prosecution, you can always find out who caused the trouble and then get the person sanctioned. Couldn’t we used the money to build schools for all those studying under trees, we could have done that. If we start sanctioning people they would be careful in what they do,” he indicated.
Counsel Member of the Institute, Mr Richard Asante-Amoah shared some objectives of the institute. He said the event formed part of their periodic meeting to review supply-chain management practices among players in the sector.
Mr Asante-Amoah said the Institute has the objective of driving governance systems to ensure value for money through probing activities such as contracts and projects.
“Our objective is also to drive the governance systems for them to get best value for value. What we will do is start probing some of the things they do and whether within the tunnels of the chain we mentioned, whether it is silted so that we can have free flow and smooth tunnels in the chain activity so that we can better get best value,” he said
“We want to discuss with governments not only sitting government and then institutions that matter, for us our type of supply chain we believe is called integrated supply chain management,” he noted.
The Institute says as a professional body, it is committed to the development of international standards in supply chain management practices in Ghana and on the international stage.
The CISCM-Ghana Fellows Caucus maiden meeting was in conjunction with the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) at Greenhill. The institute has a membership of seven hundred made up of corporate, eminent, full and associate members. The meeting was supported by Lucozade
Present were the President of the institute, Mr Richard O. OKrah, the Rector of GIMPA and an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Supply Chain Management, Professor Philip Ebow Bondzi-Simpson and other fellow members.
