The Ghana Institute of Procurement and Supply (GIPS), a central organisation for professionals, practitioners and students of the procurement and supply chain profession in Ghana, has organised a capacity enhancement workshop in the writing of specification and bill of quantities for its members in Accra.
About 25 participants, comprising of officials of public sector institutions, corporate entities and top-level procurement practitioners, took part in the three-day hybrid capacity-building programme.
According to the president of the institute, Collins Agyemang Sarpong, the workshop was to empower procurement officers and practitioners in one critical aspect of procurement that could help them to save cost and ensure value-based procurement practice in their respective organisations.
“Proper procurement starts with specification or needs identification but that it has been left for persons in various user departments to carry it out for procurement units to base on that to issue tender notices.
Because of this gap, procurement people cannot mostly raise questions on some costly items or specifications as a means of saving cost to their organisations and ensuring value for money transactions,” GIPS President Collins Agyemang Sarpong told journalists at the end of the training session.
According to Mr. Sarpong, there is the need for procurement officers to understand the specifications that are listed in tender documents instead of going with whatever is provided by the user departments.
“When it comes to works, over 80 percent of procurement persons cannot read bill of quantities, and are therefore, unable to ask the relevant related questions such as the value proposition.
“We see it as a capacity gap so this training programme was to help close this gap for our members and practitioners.”
Apart from adhering strictly to the processes of procurement, the GIPS boss tasked professionals in the field to build their capacity and understanding in other critical aspects such as the writing of specifications and bill of quantities to tackle cost bleeding in the public sector.
The three-day capacity-building workshop was to bridge the capacity gap among public and private procurement, and supply professionals and practitioners in the writing of specifications and bill of quantity.
Ms. Charlotte Adubea Gyau, a participant from Parliament House, shared that the three-day training was very insightful and empowering.
“This programme has given me an in-depth knowledge about specification and bill of quantities as key elements in the procurement process. The fact that figures could be bloated or under-quoted based on design or specifications,” she said.
She added: “I didn’t know much about this initially, but this training has made me understand that procurement professionals should be more interested in these aspects of procurement. I’ll recommend this training for other practitioners to empower them to go about their obligations more efficiently and professionally”.
According to another participant, Seth Godwin Fianoo, from the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), the new knowledge that he has acquired will enable him to interrogate specifications and BOQs to save cost to his organisation.
“Most procurement people do not have much knowledge about specifications, and therefore, do not have anything to do when they go to sites, except to pay the bills that are pushed to us. This course has enlightened me; I can now ask the right questions that will help me to save cost to my organisation.
GIPS says it is dedicated to promoting high standard of integrity and probity in respect of the procurement and supply chain practice through the provision of a wide range of services that are beneficial to both members and the business community.
