[ 2016-01-26 ]

Govt Blows GH¢1m On Condoms
The Deputy Procurement Officer of the Ghana Health
Service (GHS), Araba Kudiabor, has admitted her
outfit’s guilt for by-passing the Public
Procurement Authority (PPA) to procure 10 Great
Wall Hovers vehicles through sole-sourcing at a
total cost of GH¢546,000 for the GHS .

The Service also bought 332 Pick-up vehicles
valued at GH¢10.4 million without tender and
spent GH¢1.4 million on condoms.

However, DAILY GUIDE learnt that the condoms were
even rejected by the Ministry of Health because
they were almost expired.

The revelations, contained in the
Auditor-General’s 2011 report, indicated that
the Health Service handpicked its preferred
supplier – Auto-World Ltd – without obtaining
approval from the Public Procurement Authority.

The auditors observed that if the GHS wanted to
adopt sole-sourcing and skip the legal requirement
to advertise for companies to express interest, it
should have sought permission to do so.

The audit report noted that the 332 Great Wall
Pick-ups were obtained on hire purchase at
GH¢10.4 million and 10 Great Hovers at more than
GH¢530,000. Another company was also selected to
supply condoms valued at more than GH¢1 million
without following the law.
Answering queries on the procurements at
yesterday’s sitting of the Public Accounts
Committee (PAC) of Parliament, Ms Araba Kudiabor
said it was an emergency situation and apologised
to the Committee for that infraction.

Again, two procurements of male condoms at the
cost of GH¢1,450,000 did not go through tender
nor the Public Procurement Authority, which the
Director-General of the Ghana Health Services, Dr
Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, said constituted serious
infraction and therefore referred the matter to
the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) for
investigation.

.
The Procurement Unit of the GHS was also faulted
for engaging insurance brokers without prior
approval by the PPA, which committed the GHS to
annual insurance premium of GH¢321,867 for 325
vehicles that were insured.

The Deputy Procurement Officer also admitted guilt
in that transaction and apologised to the
Committee.

The chairman of the Committee, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu,
and the vice chairman, Samuel Atta Akyea, were not
happy at the serious infractions by the
Procurement Unit of the GHS and said the Committee
would not hesitate to make recommendations to the
Attorney-General to start prosecuting public
officers who are implicated by the
Auditor-General’s report.

According to them, there were so many cases of
supply of sub-standard drugs and sole-sourcing at
the GHS which the Committee took serious exception
to, especially when the health of Ghanaians is
concerned.

According to Atta Akyea, Section 92 of Act 663 is
very explicit that any officer who is found to
have breached the Procurement Act could be
convicted to summary sentence of 1,000 penalty
units or five years’ imprisonment or both.

He cautioned procurement officers in public
service to have that at the back of their minds
when conducting business on behalf of the state.

Source - Daily Guide

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