The Public Procurement Authority (PPA) is soon to adopt a new approach to procurement practice in the country, known as Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP). When implemented, SPP will address environmental, social and economic consequences of procurement actions from design through manufacturing to use and final disposal would make Ghana the first country in the region to adopt the concept. The concept, developed out of the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002, requires the setting up of a Task Force made up of key stakeholders comprising civil society, environmental agency, local government, trade unions, standard oversight bodies, institutions of engineers and architects, and the academia, that would see to it that public procurement adheres to the SPP standards. Hopefully, this process would help to reduce corrupt practices inherent in the public procurement process and repose public confidence instead. "With sustainability issues becoming vital in the development agenda of nations, it is time to shift the focus of government procurement systems from mainly immediate economic advantages to sustainable public procurement systems which will result in long term benefits to government and its constituents." Mr. Adjenim Boateng-Adjei, CEO of PPA said on unveiling the new concept in Accra last Thursday. He explained that the concept will promote environmental protection, uphold the rights of the vulnerable and maintain standards of public health and safety for all at an affordable cost. By its environmental dimension, SPP will ensure that government buys products which are only environmentally harmonious in its manufacture, use and disposal. Socially, it would compel government to make use of procurement to drive social improvement like the working conditions of publicly contracted construction workers and granting the physically challenged special access into public buildings. Economically, it would help to instill efficiency in government expenditure, like the use of energy saving bulbs, reduction of maintenance costs of a procured asset and disposal costs at the end of its life. Economic sustainability will also ensure that there is economic benefit both to the community from which the product was manufactured and to that in which it was sold. Mr. Adjenim-Boateng linked the SPP concept to the Black Empowerment Clause in South Africa's constitution, which states that 65 percent of all government businesses must go to the Blacks, saying that the SPP also seeks to empower local suppliers by making them more competitive at the stage of bidding. Source: Business and Financial Times