Public Procurement Breaches in Ghana: AK 47 for Gunning Political opponents

The impact of infractions in procurement are prevalence in many developing countries and it affects the growth of the nation.Public procurement is an important tool that could be used to address many concerns due to the large amount of money involved.Complexity of the projects, political interferences in procurement processes, and opportunities for discretionary decisions by procurement officers, poor monitoring and accountability mechanisms affect the entire procurement systems (World Bank, 2016).Public procurement involves the acquisition of goods and/or services at the best possible total cost of ownership, in the right quantity, quality, time and place for use by government and public organizations via contract (Beke, 2018).However, infractions in public procurement play critical role in the success of a procurement process since it affects the processes leading to award of contract.For example, in Ghana, one-third of local infrastructural projects stand unfinished, which suggests potential abuses in the procurement process (Williams, 2015).Similarly, 38 percent of government projects in Nigeria never reached completion stage (Rasul and Rogger, 2016).Such high levels of inappropriate award of contracts call for the assessment of procurement processes that is essential to the promotion of economic development.These inefficiencies in public procurement have therefore led to series of procurement reforms (Dza et al., 2013).Apparently, countries all over the world have been concerned with how to modernize, simplify and improve public procurement practices using public policy and legal reforms (Schooner et al., 2008).Public procurement is not just the simple act of purchasing but a development tool that has the ability to transform public finances into development outcome.It has become an essential part of governance that political leaders must deploy with tact and skill to execute their promises and accomplish the desired benefits for their citizens.Since procurement is the means by which public resources are spent, improvements within the procurement system by means of reforms have developmental impact within