The Office of the Public Procurement Authority, PPA has as of January till March this year saved the government an amount of GH₵554 million Cedis.
According to the PPA, GH₵815 million was saved in 2017.
This brings to a total amount of almost One thousand Three Hundred and 70 Cedis saved by the Public Procurement Authority as of January last year to the first quarter of this year.
This follows rigorous monitoring and due diligence, it put in place as part of measures to fight corruption in public procurement.
Head, Cooperate Affairs and Administration at the PPA Rhoda Appiah disclosed this at a dialogue in Accra, which was spearheaded by the GII and other partners to examine Ghana's commitments to combat corruption.
Ghana Integrity Initiative, (GII), the Local Chapter of Transparency International, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, (CHRAJ), National Commission on Civic Education, (NCCE), Africa Parliamentary Network Against Corruption, (APNAC), and Online hub, Penplusbytes teamed up to champion the discussion on how Ghana has performed since the country made commitments to intensify the fight against corruption at an anti-corruption summit in the UK in 2016. Clearly, participants agreed that some progress has been made, but a lot more needs to be done.
Speaking on progress made in the area of public procurement, Rhoda Appiah said a Value For Money and Due Diligence Unit created at the Public Procurement Authority has helped to minimise the issue of padded contracts, bid rigging, and more importantly eliminate fake contractors.
She disclosed that a total amount of close to One thousand Three Hundred and 70million Cedis was saved by the Public Procurement Authority through due -diligence.
Besides, due diligence anti-corruption advocates believe that punitive measures are very necessary to keep corrupt practices out of the public sphere.
Board Member of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Linda Ofori Kwafo gave examples, where the UK and the US have in place legislation to prevent persons involved in corruption to be denied entry visas.
At the close of the roundtable, it became obvious that citizens need to do more to remove corruption, which seems to have assumed a hydra-headed posture not only in Ghana but also on the continent.