Agric Ministry defends decision to use sole sourcing

The Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Sagre Bambangi, has defended the ministry's decision to give out a GH¢9.9 million contract for the procurement of insecticides for the eradication of fall army worms on a sole sourcing basis.

Retrospective approval

He told Parliament on Wednesday that the ministry received a retrospective approval from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) for the sole sourcing contract.

Dr Bambangi was answering a question posed by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashaiman, Mr Ernest Henry Norgbey, on the procurement method used in the procurement of insecticides for the fall army worms eradication.

Dr Bambangi said considering the outbreak of the fall army worms and the impact on food security, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, submitted a memorandum to the Cabinet for support to fund the management activities, including the procurement of insecticides.

He said the Cabinet immediately approved the budget for the management of fall army worms throughout the country.

Registered companies

He said on receipt of recommendations on the recommended insecticides from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI), the ministry invited all companies which had registered their insecticides with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to a meeting and appealed to them to supply on credit.

Dr Bambangi said in all 12 agro-chemical companies agreed and supplied the insecticides.

Asked whether it was legally right for the ministry to give out the contract before it sought approval, Dr Bambangi said he believed it was wrong and that the PPA would not have given such an approval.

He said the fall army worms had been generally controlled.