The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), last week, swept three awards at the second Ghana Procurement and Supply Chain Awards 2019 held in Accra.
The award was given to the procurement department for its recognition of quality services, innovation and tireless efforts in promoting the procurement sector.
The awards were Excellence in Public Procurement (Silver), Innovative Use of Technology in Public Procurement and Supply (Bronze).
Additionally, Dr. Robert Kweku Tay, Deputy Director and Head of Procurement at the DVLA was awarded and promoted to Ghana Top 20 Procurement Leader.
Delivering a speech on the topic, ‘Tackling procurement integrity in Ghana’ at the event, Sarah Adwoa Safo, Minister in Charge of Public Procurement said, “Statistically, public procurement in Ghana currently accounts for approximately 50 per cent – 70 per cent of government expenditure.
“This represents a chunk of the country’s total GDP while worldwide, $390 billion goes to procurement. In Sub Saharan Africa, $148 billion goes to procurement. Yet the existence of corruption, conflict of interest, collusion and fraud poses a major threat to the judicious utilisation of public funds,” she said.
She said public procurement being the main mechanism through which government provides goods, works and services to its citizenry, when challenged by the lack of integrity in the processes; procedures could be disastrous to the state.
Mrs Stella Aku Addo, Country Director at the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), Ghana admonished procurement practitioners to endeavour to follow the highest standard of conduct to bring sanity to the procurement sector.
She, therefore, urged organisations to ensure that their procurement professionals were qualified and were of high ethical values.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of InstinctWave, organisers of the Ghana Procurement and Supply Chain Awards 2019,procurement and supply chain had evolved over time and businesses were rapidly re-evaluating their procurement operation models and strategies not just to withstand the market forces, but also to improve their bottomline.
In an interview with The Ghanaian Times, Dr Tay, said he was happy to have won the award.
“I have been spearheading the restructuring and strategic placement of the function and working as the key driving force behind all the smart procurement and supply innovations and initiatives at the DVLA,” he said.
Dr Tay said he led his team to win the Emerging Improvement in Procurement and Supply Chain Management award for the DVLA at the maiden edition of Ghana Procurement and Supply Chain Awards in 2018.
BY ALFRED NII ARDAY ANKRAH
