Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, is advocating for the introduction of procurement and strategic sourcing as an elective subject in the secondary education curriculum – giving a firm foundation to students who might want to take on the profession in the latter stages of their education.
He made this call when leadership of the Ghana Institute of Procurement and Supply (GIPS) paid a courtesy call on him to submit the policy document and draft copy of the Procurement Practicing bill for onward submission to Cabinet. The team was led by President of the Institute, Simon Annan. Also in attendance was Professor Douglas Boateng, one of world’s renowned experts on strategic sourcing and the only distinguished fellow of the institute.
Mr. Annan emphasised that passing the Procurement Practicing bill will be a game-changer, because it will provide standards, accountable procurement and regulations for practitioners to responsibly undertake their functions ethically to support Act 663 as amended.
According to the minister, tenets of the procurement profession require discipline, ethical standards, a code of conduct and practical applications, which should be introduced to aspiring professionals at the early stages of their education. “The fundamental aim of this proposal is to champion the integration of procurement as an elective discipline within Ghana’s second-cycle educational framework,” the minister added.
He therefore tasked leadership of GIPS to work with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) and related parties to develop the right course content and methodologies for implementation.
President-GIPS, Simon Annan, welcomed the minister’s recommendation and indicated that graduates who aspire to study procurement and supply chain at university level after senior high school will be well-equipped with fundamental understanding of practical applications for procurement.
He emphasised that studying procurement in second-cycle institutions will expose the citizenry to an inextricable link between procurement, industrialisation and sustainable job creation for long-term socio-economic development. “It is a good decision, because it supports the students to understand real applications of procurement and the linkages between procurement and sustainable development in the country,” he said.
“Most people are in the procurement and supply profession by accident, but when it is studied as an elective course in the senior high schools there will be a foundation to begin from,” the GIPS president added.
Commenting on the clarion call from the minister, Prof Boateng – former non-executive chairman of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) said: “Without local and region wide professionalisation of procurement, Ghana and the rest of the continent’s long-term industrialisation and socio-economic development will continue to remain a pipe-dream. It is my hope that the Hon. Minister’s call will overwhelmingly be endorsed by government, CSOs and all the political parties, as it is in the nation’s long-term interest,” the professor concluded.
