Vodafone Ghana has been awarded the prestigious award of "Best Procurement Community" at the Pan Africa Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Awards ceremony in Johannesburg, South Africa. The winning submission outlined Vodafone Ghana’s initiatives and successes in raising Health and Safety (H&S) awareness and introducing best procurement practise across the community encompassing 1,400 employees, 800 suppliers and the general public as a whole. A statement from the company said “Vodafone Ghana has taken health, safety and ethical procurement practices to another level of our operations in Ghana. Vodafone Ghana is immensely proud that the implementation and insistence of standards in Ghana, has resulted in some of our local partners championing this to even greater heights, resulting in this enviable award.” The statement quoted Vodafone Ghana’s Head of Supply Chain Management, Bart Borchardt as saying Vodafone considered that reducing cost of doing business in Ghana was critical for the nation’s pursuit of becoming investment destination in the sub-region. Upon entering into the Ghanaian telecommunications market, Vodafone introduced a number of measures to ensure that, its operations and that of its suppliers conformed to best and responsible business practices. These include streamlining its suppliers list and ensuring that only businesses with the requisite certification to operate under the Ghanaian laws including fulfillment of all tax obligations are maintained. Bart Borchardt said ‘’this is very crucial for good corporate governance in emerging markets, and Vodafone strongly believes it is the right thing to do as it makes us efficient, save cost and protect the image and integrity of the company and that of our suppliers.” The statement also said Vodafone’s insistent on highest standards and policies had not only changed dangerous practices within the telecommunications sector, but across other sectors in Ghana. The company thanked all of its suppliers who had worked so hard to instill the rigorous H&S standards in their work practices in Ghana. “This highly coveted Pan African Award is a testament to how far we have come and we are looking forward to working with our key suppliers to continue making Ghana a safe place to work.” Borchardt added. Source: Adom News/Ghana