The training was in partnership with the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development with funding support from the World Bank.

It was attended by over 40 procurement officers, store keepers, engineers and planners of the Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs) and Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAS) in the five regions of the north, to equip them on Ghana Electric Procurement System (GHANEPS) in Tamale.

The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Kwame Prempeh, addressing the participants said in 2019, the authority with support from the World Bank through the Ministry of Communications under the e-Transform project, the Ghana Electronic Procurement System(GHANEPS) was launched.

He said the idea was aimed at transforming Ghana’s public procurement system from manual to electronic.

This according to him, the system also seeks to promote transparency and improving efficiency in procurement in the government agencies.

He added that the training was also to ensure that the assemblies and regional coordinating council got the needed knowledge on the use of the GHANEPS to do all procurement activities at their various entities.

The Deputy CEO said the training was also going a long way to help them set up their users on the system , develop tender documents, invite suppliers, tender opening, evaluation after opening and also finalizing tender evaluation reports.

He said this would also help them to manage contracts in the system.

Mr Prempeh stated that Public Procurement Authority officials would soon visit the organisations to assist the trained officers to ensure that they practice the knowledge they had acquired during the training.

He added that, the government of Ghana consolidated annual procurement plan was available as well for individual procuring entities.

Mr Prempeh, however, called on entities to download excel file for offline viewing and filtering.

The Deputy CEO also added that, plans were far advanced by the authority to embark on capacity building training for procurement officers across the country.

Hajia Rashidatu Hassan, Planning Officer of the Yendi Municipal Assembly said the training had given them much knowledge on the GHANEPS, adding that they would put to good use, the knowledge that had acquired.

She stated that the system would reduce too much paperwork and make the procurement process simple, and urged the management of the PPA to give them periodical training