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Causes and Costs of Procurement Irregularities in Ghana’s District Assemblies

Received: 16 September 2019    Accepted: 9 October 2019    Published: 26 October 2019
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Abstract

The Ghana government introduced procurement regulation in 2003 to govern the public procurement function in the country. However, high levels of irregularities still abound in the performance of the procurement function. The Auditor-General’s reports for the years 2014 to 2018, revealed procurement irregularities at the country’s District Assemblies. These irregularities could pose high corruption risk to the procurement process by creating fertile grounds for fraud and corruption in public procurement practice at the District Assemblies. Although articles have been written about procurement practice in Ghana, not much has been said about the practice at the district level. This article therefore seeks to fill this gap. The article throws a critical searchlight on public procurement practice at the country’s District Assemblies. The methodology employed is a doctrinal one whereby the adherence or otherwise to public procurement laws of the country by the District Assemblies is looked at. The analysis of procurement practice at the assemblies has revealed that the hub of the matter facing public procurement in Ghana is the elusiveness of implementation of the tenets of the procurement regime. Having identified the weaknesses in the procurement practice, the article suggests palliatives by resorting to innovations reported in other jurisdictions to address the gap.

Published in International Journal of Law and Society (Volume 2, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijls.20190204.11
Page(s) 58-67
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Causes, Costs, Corruption, District Assemblies, Ghana, Irregularities, Public Procurement

References
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[57] Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663), section 91 (2).
[58] Arrowsmith, S. Priess, H., and Friton, P. (2009) Self-cleaning as a defense to exclusions for misconduct: an emerging concept in EC public procurement law? Public Procurement Law Review, 6, pp 257-282; 2014 European Union (EU) Directive, article 57; See World Bank, VDP Guidelines for Participants, para. 3.
[59] Neupane, A., Soar, J., Vaidya, K., and Yong, J. (2012) Role of Public E-Procurement Technology to Reduce Corruption in Government Procurement. International Public Procurement Conference, August 17-19, Seattle, Washington.
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Michael Kofi Quashie. (2019). Causes and Costs of Procurement Irregularities in Ghana’s District Assemblies. International Journal of Law and Society, 2(4), 58-67. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijls.20190204.11

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    ACS Style

    Michael Kofi Quashie. Causes and Costs of Procurement Irregularities in Ghana’s District Assemblies. Int. J. Law Soc. 2019, 2(4), 58-67. doi: 10.11648/j.ijls.20190204.11

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    AMA Style

    Michael Kofi Quashie. Causes and Costs of Procurement Irregularities in Ghana’s District Assemblies. Int J Law Soc. 2019;2(4):58-67. doi: 10.11648/j.ijls.20190204.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijls.20190204.11,
      author = {Michael Kofi Quashie},
      title = {Causes and Costs of Procurement Irregularities in Ghana’s District Assemblies},
      journal = {International Journal of Law and Society},
      volume = {2},
      number = {4},
      pages = {58-67},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijls.20190204.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijls.20190204.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijls.20190204.11},
      abstract = {The Ghana government introduced procurement regulation in 2003 to govern the public procurement function in the country. However, high levels of irregularities still abound in the performance of the procurement function. The Auditor-General’s reports for the years 2014 to 2018, revealed procurement irregularities at the country’s District Assemblies. These irregularities could pose high corruption risk to the procurement process by creating fertile grounds for fraud and corruption in public procurement practice at the District Assemblies. Although articles have been written about procurement practice in Ghana, not much has been said about the practice at the district level. This article therefore seeks to fill this gap. The article throws a critical searchlight on public procurement practice at the country’s District Assemblies. The methodology employed is a doctrinal one whereby the adherence or otherwise to public procurement laws of the country by the District Assemblies is looked at. The analysis of procurement practice at the assemblies has revealed that the hub of the matter facing public procurement in Ghana is the elusiveness of implementation of the tenets of the procurement regime. Having identified the weaknesses in the procurement practice, the article suggests palliatives by resorting to innovations reported in other jurisdictions to address the gap.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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    AB  - The Ghana government introduced procurement regulation in 2003 to govern the public procurement function in the country. However, high levels of irregularities still abound in the performance of the procurement function. The Auditor-General’s reports for the years 2014 to 2018, revealed procurement irregularities at the country’s District Assemblies. These irregularities could pose high corruption risk to the procurement process by creating fertile grounds for fraud and corruption in public procurement practice at the District Assemblies. Although articles have been written about procurement practice in Ghana, not much has been said about the practice at the district level. This article therefore seeks to fill this gap. The article throws a critical searchlight on public procurement practice at the country’s District Assemblies. The methodology employed is a doctrinal one whereby the adherence or otherwise to public procurement laws of the country by the District Assemblies is looked at. The analysis of procurement practice at the assemblies has revealed that the hub of the matter facing public procurement in Ghana is the elusiveness of implementation of the tenets of the procurement regime. Having identified the weaknesses in the procurement practice, the article suggests palliatives by resorting to innovations reported in other jurisdictions to address the gap.
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Author Information
  • School of Public Service and Governance, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Accra, Ghana

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