Contractual Payment Terms: A Procedural Study in the Mining Industry of Ghana
Charles Adusei | Jacob Bannerman | Hollack Obeng | Akosua Kosei K. Asamoah
Discipline: management studies
Abstract:
Contracts play a significant role in facilitating business activities and commercial transactions by
determining the rights and obligations of each contracting party. This qualitative study seeks to
explore the procedures on contractual payment terms of Newmont Ghana as mining companies
procure their goods and services through contractors/suppliers. Interviews were conducted
with the three contract administrators and complemented with archival records, and the data
analysis was inductive, using thematic analysis from a constructivist viewpoint. In addition, the
result reveals that contract requests, negotiations, and evaluation were the basis for awarding
a contract. However, the challenges have their root in non-compliance and communications
gaps in the processes and procedures on contractual payment terms. The study concludes that
there is a comprehensive laid-down procedure for how Newmont Ghana arrives at its payment
terms. It also proposes that there must be effective coordination and collaboration between
the contracts department and the accounts payable office internally while externally Newmont
must improve its supplier relationship management through best practices on account payables.
Lessons learned with the prescription of four generic points to improve contractual payment
terms of any organisation. Furthermore, this is one of the very few papers of a procedural study
on contractual payment terms of contractors in the mining industry of Ghana using in-depth
interviews and documentation reviews.
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