Mr. Lukman Abdul-Rahim, a Consultant working with Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), an NGO, said they should make sure that the public procurement law was upheld.

He second-guessed the resort to sole sourcing in contract awards by the assemblies in the past and said that lent itself to abuse and bred corruption.

He was speaking at a three-day training workshop on procurement, budgeting and planning held for assembly members and journalists in Kumasi.

It was jointly organized by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) and WSUP and the goal was to help the participants to have better understanding of the public procurement law.

The workshop provided the platform to discuss the role of assembly members in the procurement process, methods of procurement, procurement thresholds for consultancy and services, composition and the role of tender review committees, and when single sourcing could be used.

Mr. Abdul-Rahim reminded the assemblies to see to it that those who served on the tender committee were people of integrity – people, who could not be influenced to bend the rules.

He made reference to a study by the World Bank that said procurement accounted for about 50-70 per cent of the national budget after personal emoluments.

He said what this meant was that an efficient public procurement system could ensure value for money in government expenditure.

This, he indicated, was essential to a nation facing enormous development challenges.

Mr. Abdul-Rahim encouraged journalists to take keen interest in the procurement processes to bring about openness and transparency in the use of public funds.