Government will ensure fiscal discipline — Veep

pulse-ghana admin

May 31, 2017 5:21 PM

Veep Dr Bawumia says govt is committed not to compromise on the country's fiscal Discipline

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Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has reiterated government’s commitment to adhering strictly to public financial management and public procurement laws to ensure fiscal discipline.

He stated that government’s resolve is towards reverting the rumors that 90 per cent corruption within the public sector was procurement-related.

He stressed that one can only imagine the overwhelming damage 90 per cent of corruption in public procurement could do to the economy and therefore particular attention should be given to the issue.

Vice-President Bawumia said this in Accra Monday when he opened a six-day special training on the Financial Management Law, as well as the Procurement Law and processes for ministers of state, deputy ministers, chief directors, heads of key state agencies and other political appointees.

“Procurement occupied a large percentage of government business and is one of the nerve centers in the process of translating national budgets into goods, works and services to meet national development outcomes’’ he said.

According to Dr Bawumia, the president has appointed a minister of state to work alongside the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) so that the Presidency would have an insight into what was going on in public procurement.

He said lack of fiscal discipline had underpinned the economic woes of the country because in its absence, all other indicators of economic progress were lost, adding that the cornerstone of fiscal discipline had been captured in two acts — the Public Financial Management Act and the Public Procurement Act.

The two acts, he stressed, were key to improving economic fortunes. He told the participants that understanding and implementing them were critical to the government maintaining and sustaining fiscal discipline.

In view of that, he said, the policy thrust of the 2017 budget gave an indication of how the government intended to strictly enforce the anti-corruption agenda through effective fiscal discipline and the enforcement of all the aspects of the Public Financial Management Act and the Public Procurement Act.

Over the years, the Vice-President said, Ghanaians had been witnesses to how fiscal governance had been carried out without the expected discipline and dedication for good outcomes.

“We have heard and seen incidences of the abuse of the procurement processes, especially the over-reliance on the infamous sole-sourcing approach,” he said.

Sole-sourcing, he said, was legal but there were circumstances under which it was necessary, adding: “It should not be abused.”

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