World Bank and procurement
The World Bank in 2010 launched its new access of information policy to give a new policy direction on the level of transparency that the bank has embarked upon.
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This policy represented a fundamental shift in the bank’s approach to disclosure of information about its projects. In the time past it was very difficult to get basic information from the World Bank. Now things have changed and the bank has been more opened than ever before.
One of the basic shifts of the bank is to inform the general public through the media on the level of project implementation in member countries. Another area is the transparency in which the bank implements its procurement policy in these countries.
To the world bank procurement is the process by which goods, works, related services, and consulting services required in a project are acquired and it is one of the most important activities in World Bank-financed projects.
To ensure that countries get value for money, the bank has linked project implementation to the commitment of a loan and its disbursement.
At a video conference organised by the communication unit of the World Bank for financial journalists in Accra, Monrovia and Freetown, the Senior Procurement Specialist, Mr Adu-Gyamfi Abunyewa of the World Bank said one of the cardinal principles of the World Bank is improving development outcomes and service delivery through good governance and anti-corruption measures.
Mr Abunyewa who was assisted in its presentation in Accra by Mr Charles Taylor, Specialist and Ing Charles John Aryee Ashong both procurement specialists, all stressed the need for a critical and sound public procurement as an essential cornerstone in project implementation.
Simply put Mr Abunyewa said good governance is about doing correct things using correct people at the correct time and following correct rules and procedures.
He said unchecked fraud and corruption undermines all “corrects” and hence choke development outcomes and service delivery, adding that public resources used to procure goods, works or services critical to the successful delivery of government projects and public services must be well protected.
He said public resources are scarce (tax payers money) and therefore sound public financial management was very necessary to achieve value for money in government expenditure.
According to the three specialists the role of the bank in project implementation include review of the procurement plan, advertisement notice of the project, bidding documents, bid and proposals evaluation reports, draft contracts, contract amendment, performance on contracts and ex-post procurement.
That of the contractor includes among others, to obtain the bidding documents, submit bids and proposals in accordance with required documents, supply goods or contracts works according to the contract and provides the services or consulting services according to the contract.
Therefore World Bank projects stalling might not come from lack of funding but rather, not meeting some of these fiduciary requirements during the implementation period.
A recent status report on World Bank projects show that four major projects started in Ghana between 2004 and 2011, have been revised in terms of their dates of completion for various reasons.
The projects are the Ghana Urban Water Project, Nutrition and Malaria Control for Child Survival Project, Ghana Social Opportunities Project and Ghana Statistics Development Programme.
For instance the Ghana Urban Water Project, which received approval on July 27, 2004 to be effectively implemented on March 21, 2005 under a five-year programme, has now been revised to December 31, 2015.