Introduction: This article discusses the extent to which the promulgation of Public Procurement Act (PPA) 663 has affected the acquiring of water treatment chemicals which is pivotal to the operations of Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL). The purpose is to find out from officials within the company about their impressions with the coming into force of the act for more than a decade now.
Methods: A descriptive study with quantitative methods was conducted with workers of GWCL; procurements and materials, operations/project management unit and projects planning and development in Accra. Questionnaires were administered to 85 workers within GWCL through a purposive sampling method. Data analyses involved descriptive statistics using SPSS version 20.
Results: Out of 85 participants, 88.2% revealed that all contracts are made available to interested individuals to apply through sources such as website of GWCL and newspapers. Most workers agreed that procurement management has improved efficiency and effectiveness in procurement of essential water chemicals (mean=4.08). Finding further revealed that the PPA has significant (65.9%) and very strong effect (27.1%) on procurement of essential water treatment. However, the structure has been plagued by lapses affecting procurement of water treatment chemicals. These include bureaucracy and centralization which has negative impacts on procurement activities.
Conclusion: The study concludes that since the coming into force of the act, there has been institutionalization of structures to handle procurement within GWCL. Therefore, measures to decentralize the activities of GWCL will further help in enhancing efficiency within GWCL and other entities to a larger extent.