The Country Director of the World Bank, Mr Henry Kerali, says Ghana can save more than $100 million, an equivalent of two per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) annually for introducing the e-procurement system.
He said the e-procurement system would not only improve efficiency in public procurement but also reduce the cost of transactions to service providers.
Mr Kerali was speaking at the launch of the Ghana Electronic Procurement System (GHANEPS) last Tuesday in Accra on the theme: “Rising to a New Dawn in Public Procurement”.
Also known as the “e-Government Procurement (e-GP)”, the $5 million online platform system, which will be operated by the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), has automated all public procurement processes.
The e-GP was funded through the World Bank-sponsored $97 million e-Transform Ghana Project and seeks to strengthen the accountability, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of the government.
Mr Kerali said a centralised supplier database would improve compliance, audits and performance and also enhance productivity as electronic records helped with the submission of tenders and reduced paperwork, resulting in cost reductions.
He urged all public agencies to take advantage of the system to transform their operations.
While commending the government for the initiative, he urged all public agencies to take advantage of the e-procurement system to enhance their operations.
On the e-Transform Ghana Project, he said, the World Bank signed a financing agreement with the government of Ghana for the implementation of the $97 million project in July 2014.
The objective of the project, he explained, was to improve the efficiency and coverage of the government’s service delivery using information communication technologies to leverage connectivity for innovation and economic transformation.
The project included e-Procurement, e-Justice, e-Immigration, e-Parliament and the necessary infrastructure and data storage systems.
With the President of Ghana’s vision of “Ghana Beyond Aid”, Mr Kerali pledged the World Bank’s commitment to continue to provide technical and financial support for the government under the e-Transform Ghana Project to improve on Ghana’s economy and the ease of doing business.
