The inability of local entrepreneurs to follow guidelines on competitive tendering as stipulated in the Public Procurement Act usually affects them in national and international tendering. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Commodore Steve Obimpeh (rtd), who made the observation, said: “Local entrepreneurs usually fail to win bids during tender because they do not adhere to guidelines on the Margin of Preference stipulated in the Act.” He was addressing a training session for heads of department and agencies on the Public procurement Act at Dodowa on Thursday. Commodore Obimpeh urged the participants to be conversant with the law on procurement to eliminate waste and make good savings for the government. He explained that the Act seeks to provide both administrative and institutional arrangement for public procurement to ensure that state resources are harnessed judiciously. Commodore Obimpeh noted that public procurement is critical to government’s expenditure because it accounts for more than 70 per cent after personnel emoluments. According to him, gross misunderstanding and misapplication of the Act has made heads of institutions falter during its implementation and to curb this, the PPA has, since its inception, made efforts to build the capacities of stakeholders. “Over the past three years, the PPA has trained more than 8,000 public procurement functionaries and about 1,500 personnel in oversight institutions such as the Internal Audit Agency and the Auditor General’s Department,” Commodore Obimpeh said. Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in an address read on his behalf added that weak legal framework, codified procedures, regulations and capacity of procurement staff are some of the weaknesses in the public procurement system. He, therefore, called for the allocation of sufficient funds for training procurement staff. Source: GNA