The 1st Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, has expressed worry about the lack of participation and involvement of Members of Parliament on entity tender committees in the country.
Speaking at a workshop organized on Enhancing Parliamentary Oversight through Public Procurement in Koforidua, Mr. Osei-Owusu said, to him less than 1 percent of MPs in Parliament are part of the entity tender committees, a situation he described as unfortunate.
“Members of Parliament are required to sit on those Entity Tender Committee but I probably can say that less than 1 percent do attend those meeting. The reason may be that we are not invited by the MMDAs, Ministries departments and agencies. In particular agencies, agencies that don’t depend on the national budget have huge resources often outside the budget.”
“They deliver some of the biggest service and goods but Parliament oversees their work. If I recall correctly under the Public Procurement Act, each of these agencies are supposed to have a Member of Parliament sitting on their Entity Tender Committees,” he said.
The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) has been queried over an amount of GH¢192,000 it reportedly expended on honorarium, courtesies and protocols, special and sitting allowances.
These payments, according to the Auditor General report, were made to all the members and supporting staff of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade, Industry and Tourism, Finance, and the Women’s Caucus in Parliament.
Last Month the Member of Parliament for Ashaiman, Ernest Norgbey threatened to file a petition against the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) at the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
It follows what he said were allegations of procurement breaches in the accounts of the Authority and others as captured in the 2018-2019 Auditor General’s Report.
He argued that, GEPA failed to seek the approval from its board before going into some agreements that ran into millions of Ghana cedis.
The legislator claimed that the money lost as a result of the infractions could have been invested into other important national projects hence he will not hesitate to have the matter investigated.
“In the Auditor’s General Report that was submitted to us, there were a lot of procurement breaches especially in the area of the Ghana Exports and Promotion Center. We know the Public Procurement Act, stipulates that before you engage in any single sourcing procurement, you must seek the approval of the board.”