ABSTRACT
The research study was carried
out for the purpose of assessing the status of ethical procurement practices of
procurement officers at Sogakope District Hospital based on public procurement
roles in achieving value for money. The purposive sampling method was employed
by the researcher. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data
from the respondents. The data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics,
relative importance index and mean score ranking. Public procurement and supply
chain officers and other staff made of various departments were employed for
the study. The main objective of this study was to assess the ethical practices
of public procurement practices at Sogakope District Hospital. Based on the
data obtained from 25 members of staff made up of procurement practitioners and
other staff members, the result showed that the Sogakope District Hospital
complied with Public Procurement Act and Disposal Regulations on ethical
issues, by preparation/ implementation of procurement plans annually.
‘Inadequate training Programmes on ethical procurement practice’ as well as
unequal opportunities to practitioners are the major challenges to procurement
practitioners at Sogakope District Hospital, as it was ranked highest among the
factors identified. Therefore, it was recommended that, there should be regular
training programmes for procurement practitioners and equal treatment before
and after procurement processes without any discrimination to avoid unethical
procurement practices.
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Purchasing of services, goods and
works are among the most significant activities of the government that help in
performing its functions. According to Ethiopian Proclamation Law (2009),
“Purchasing refers to the procurement of services, works, goods and consultancy
through means of obtaining, purchasing or hiring by other means of contractual
agreement; and ‘public procurement’ refers to the procurement by a public
organization using public fund." Efficient public procurement is a key
ingredient to good governance including the government capacity in managing
resources efficiently as well as formulating, implementing and enforcing
comprehensive policies and regulations. Ethical procurement is one of the
measuring rods for professionalism and efficiency in most organization
(Mekonnen and Shimeles, 2012). Because of public procurement is run by public
money that serves the public interest, procurement managers supposed to
purchase from the firm that offers the best value for money.
According to United Nations Office
on Drugs and Crimes UNDOC, (2013). Public procurement accounts for 15-30% of
the gross domestic products (GDP) for many countries in the world. Public
purchasing represents an estimated 15% of GDP in Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) states and up to 25% of Gross Domestic
Product in under developed countries (OECD, 2007); the studies are also
revealed that 70 percent of the public budget goes to procurement purposes in
sub Saharan countries (Abebe, n.d). Furthermore, Public procurement in Ghana
accounts for approximately 50-70% of the total budget for the nation (after private remunerations), 14% of GDP,
24% of total imports according to the World Bank CPAR (2003). In addition, for
example Ethiopia spends more than 60 percent of public expenditures for
procurement of goods, work and services (Tesfahun, 2011). This means that a
large amount of money spent by the governments to purchase goods, services and
works. According to UNDOC (2013), states that because of the huge amount
involved in public purchasing, it makes procurement prone to corruption in many
institutions. According Mekonnen and Shimeles (2012) unethical procurement
practice of public procurement officers negatively influences the whole process
of procurement activities and leads to loss to public resources and corruption.
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission report (2012/13) indicated that public
purchasing take the great part of governments budget. Thus, special attention
should be given to persons who coordinate public procurement activities.
Procurement officers should practice ethical principles of procurement in each
stage of public procurement in order to achieve value for money.
According to Thai (2001), provide
explanations that, ethics in public procurement is very vital tool to reduce
corruption and to make public procurement as a backbone for economic
development. Lars et al. (2008), also explained that ethics in public
purchasing does not related to only bribes and gift giving from supplier or
contractors to public procurement officials but also includes suppliers and
contractor’s practices that relate to sourcing strategy. Getnet (2014), also,
argued that public procurement is a key that promote efficient economic,
environmental and social. In developing nations, public procurement is among
the tools engaged in achieving developmental goals like infrastructure,
reducing poverty, education, providing health care and other services for best
utilization of public resources. Therefore, ethical principles of public
procurement are both using fundamental ethical practices in each stage of procurement and using procurement
as a policy tool. For instance, ethical practices like using the same
evaluation criteria in award of contracts, not disclosing secret and
confidential information, not collude with suppliers; clearly prepare bid
specification, etc. and applying purchasing as a tool for; economic development
(giving preference for local suppliers, contractors and products),
environmental protection (giving preference for environmental friendly products
or services) and procurement used as social policy tools (giving preference for
disadvantaged groups like women owned, disable and micro and small enterprise
suppliers) are the main ethical practices in government procurement activities.
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Item Type: Ghanaian Topic | Size: 63 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
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