IMANI on Value for Money Office Debate: An Independent Value-for-Money Ombudsman (IVMO) can Stimulate the PPA to Deliver
1. Clearly, without fixing the PPA, little can change; however, an independent Value-for-Money Ombudsman (IVMO) with a wider-ranging span of government interfacing and a public-friendly mandate and orientation can stimulate the PPA to deliver.
2. The IVMO should be a unit within the Cabinet Office of the Presidency focused on filling in the gaps
3. It should be staffed by a small group of technical specialists with direct presidential and cabinet secretary access; their job should be seen as intelligence-driven, national security impacting, and transversal across all domains of government; and their remuneration should have performance-based components.CSO input into designing the Value for Money Office
4. The IVMO should be notified of all non-competitive tendering and an acknowledgement should be received within three weeks of notification; if not the MDA may proceed with applying to the PPA:
a. An acknowledgement from IVMO to the procuring entity could be a simple no-objection.
b. The IVMO may require the entity to conduct specific studies and share the details. If so, the MDA must submit the studies within eight weeks.
c. The IVMO must acknowledge the studies within two weeks of receipt and may share the information with the PPA.
d.The IVMO must publicly share a report every month of all non-competitive tenders it has received and its remarks.
e. For all competitive tenders and PPPs, the IVMO must ensure that PPA reporting is prompt, up-to-date, and publicly available.
f. For all procurement transactions above a certain threshold, the IVMO must produce a Value for Money Opinion, the executive summary of which must be shared in an easily navigable website
5. IVMO must build a national community of practice and an evidence repository
a. Prior to completing a Value for Money Opinion, IVMO must publish and widely circulate a request for input.
b. Interested stakeholders with information about the subject matter of the procurement activity should have three weeks within which to submit any information either anonymously or on record.
c. Inputs received on record which demonstrate serious knowledge of the subject matter may be flagged for follow-up engagement.
d. IVMO may add quality external input as appendices when submitting the Value for Money Opinion.
e.The PPA should, as a matter of policy adopted by its Board, be required to issue a detailed public comment on each Value for Money Opinion it receives from the IVMO.
6. Having Teeth to Bite and Preventing Gums from Bleeding
a. IVMO may request a special audit of any procurement activity by composing an interagency taskforce of knowledgeable liaisons across various government agencies.
b. IVMO may constitute an expert panel composed of representatives of professional bodies, academia, think tanks, CSOs, NGOs, and trade unions to review the procurement plans, planned procurement, and procurement reviews of major state institutions in respect of major projects above a certain cost threshold. The costs for such a panel shall be borne by the institution concerned. Panels shall be expected to issue a public call for comment and all provisional and draft reports must be published.
c. Strict timelines for IVMO activities are essential in order for it not to become a bureaucratic bottleneck.
d. Major IVMO activities shall be supported by external consultants paid from the budget of the impacted procurement activities
7. IVMO should take over strategic management of GHANEPS: Ghana’s e-Procurement solution
8. IVMO should take up the task of completing the critical stalled elements of Ghana’s public procurement infrastructure.
