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The Operations Manager of the Good Governance Africa at the West Africa Regional Office (GGA-WARO), Gifty Obeng, has called on the public and private sectors to collaborate and seek holistic solutions to eliminate corruption and uphold the principles of integrity and accountability.
She also underscored the need for the sectors to collaborate on innovative solutions that would drive positive change in their procurement processes.
Ms Obeng was speaking at the sensitisation and capacity-building workshop on corruption in Sunyani in the Bono Region.
Organised by the Private Enterprise Federation (PEF), in collaboration with the GGA and the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), the training sought to enhance the role of the private sector in fighting corruption through the promotion of integrity in public procurement.
The workshop brought together 30 participants to share ideas to strengthen their collective efforts to ensure transparent, fair and ethical practices in the procurement process.
They were taken through Ghana's Public Procurement Act, Civil Society Organisation's (CSO) perspective on Ghana's Public Procurement Act and Anti-Corruption measures in public procurement among others.
At the end of the workshop, they are expected to come out with a document to be presented to policy makers.
Ms Obeng encouraged participants to harness the power of partnership and commitment to build a procurement environment that serves the interests of their society and economy.
She said corruption remained one of the most significant barriers to sustainable development, economic growth and social equity across the globe.
Ms Obeng said public procurement, which accounted for a substantial portion of government expenditures, was particularly vulnerable to corrupt practices.
She said the practices undermined the efficiency and effectiveness of public services, eroded public trust, distorted markets and perpetuated inequality.
Ms Obeng said the private sector played a pivotal role in supplying goods and services to government entities and as such held significant influence in shaping the integrity of public procurement.
She said upholding ethical standards and fostering transparency, their businesses could contribute to a level playing field where competition thrives, costs are rationalised and quality was prioritised.
The Executive Secretary of the GACC, Beauty Emefa Narteh, said it was sad that presently, corruption had been normalised.
She said corrupt practices had become normal that people even justified the need for corruption, "but we need to bring corrupt practices to a point that people say no to corruption".
Mrs Narteh urged the public to resist, reject and report corrupt practices to anti-corruption institutions or law enforcement agencies for action.
She said corruption was perpetuated between the public and private sectors, but mostly attention was focused on only the public sector.
"So if we keep focusing on the public sector, we won't be able to achieve our aim of fighting corruption," she said.
Mrs Narteh said the private sector had a key role to play because the sector was always seen as an area that influenced the public sector to indulge in corruption, especially in the area of procurement.
For his part, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the PEF, Nana Osei-Bonsu, urged business owners to ensure their companies qualified to meet demands of advertised contracts to secure contracts legitimately.
"Do not pay bribes, do not compromise the principles of legitimacy," he said.
Nana Osei-Bonsu said the workshop was aimed at equipping the private sector with the knowledge and skills to identify and avoid corrupt practices in their daily activities.
He said the workshop would help them to secure contracts legitimately and not in a corrupt way.
