Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Mary Awelana Addah, has called for measures to reduce the increasing cases of single-sourcing procurement practices within the public service. Single-sourcing procurement involves the deliberate selection of a particular supplier without opening the process up for competitive tender.
While single sourcing is legal under certain circumstances, many stakeholders have linked this method of procurement to public sector corruption. According to Madam Addah, subjecting public procurement to a competitive tendering process is essential to combat corruption.
“Out of the total procurement window, almost 85 per cent of it is done through a single source. And if it is a single source, it means there are a lot of compromises being reached,” she stated.
Madam Addah highlighted the impact of single-sourcing on various sectors, including education and health. “If people are buying school materials, textbooks, and the rest in the education sector, health items, and we are procuring them through single source procurement, while the IMF has recommended that we do a lot more of the competitive tendering, then it means we are compromising on the regime and that affects mostly the private sector,” she explained.
She emphasized the need for competitive tendering to ensure transparency and fairness in the procurement process, thereby minimizing corruption and benefiting the private sector.
