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Minister of State in charge of Public Procurement, Sarah Adwoa Safo, has revealed public procurements that exceed GH¢50m will now have to be approved by the Presidency.

She said the move is part of a directive from Cabinet that is aimed at ensuring accountability in public procurements.

Adwoa Safo made the revelations when she visited the Ministry of Education recently.

She commended the Education Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, for adhering to the procurement laws in the various procurement activities his office is undertaking for the implementation of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.

She adds that in order to strengthen the capacities of local contractors, the government has made it a policy where 70% of all its contracts or projects shall be awarded to local contractors.

Out of this 70%, 30% of the contracts or projects shall be awarded to Persons With Disability (PWDs), women and those in youth employment.

“It is a policy the government under the leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is committed to implementing. Very soon, my office will come out with how it is going to be done,” she noted.

She further revealed ongoing efforts to harmonise the Public Procurement Acts (Act 663) and the Public Procurement (Amended) Act (Act 914) for easy reading and referencing.

An e-platform of all contractors involved in government projects will also be set up to enable assessment of performance of the these contractors, she said.

“With this database, the citizenry could at any given time, assess the performance of all the contractors to know who is doing well and who is doing badly,” Adwoa Safo explained.