Policy think-thank IMANI Africa has warned that the Electoral Commission (EC) is planning to waste approximately US$150 million of taxpayers’ money on biometric and a new voter management system for the 2020 general elections.
According to IMANI, since 2011, Parliamentary records show that the EC has been given approximately US$80 million to upgrade and improve the voter management system and therefore the new request for about US$ 74 million to set up a new system was wasteful of public resources.
According to one of IMANI’s Vice Presidents, Bright Simmons the US$ 74 million being requested by the EC for a new system will hit US$ 150 million when all contingency costs are factored in.
“…If you add all of that, you add contingency and the unnecessary registration of 17 million people all over again, you are getting close to US$150 million of our money being blown for reasons that nobody can explain in this country,” Mr. Simmons said.
“When we add all that up, it comes to one simple conclusion that since 2011, it is a lie that we have not bought any new equipment and we’ve spent millions of dollars. From the parliamentary records, we’ve seen almost US$80 million since then buying new things. So if we have to do anything, we just have to do a little more repairs, do a little maintenance, buy a few things, and that will not get you to the US$74 million that they said you need to improve the current system.”
The EC has reportedly rigged the tender process to select scandal-ridden French weapons and Aerospace company, Thales (and its Gemalto unit) to be the company responsible for upgrading the election management system for election 2020.
Whatsup News can report that Thales which is originally a weapons manufacturer has been cited for several scandals globally in the past two decades.
For instance, in 2005, the World Bank’s Integrity Unit blacklisted Thales for its appetite for using bribery tactics to secure contracts worldwide.
The blacklisting prevented Thales from participating in any projects or programmes established by the World Bank.
In 2010, the company was in conjunction with the French government sentenced to pay a total of €630 million to the Taiwanese government for a scandal that dated back to 1991.
The EC has damned all opposition and criticisms to its quest for a new biometric system.
A council of “Eminent Advisors” headed by the former CHRAJ boss, Justice Emile Short, could not change the mind of the EC. Political stakeholders have vowed to resist the EC’s questionable drive for a new biometric system. Critics mostly from opposition parties think the EC is covertly working to favour the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP).
“To the Electoral Commission, be very neutral in refereeing the elections this year”, Bishop Agyin-Asare, the founder of Perez Chapel International warned the EC in a sermon to his congregation on Sunday, 8 March.
“You must listen attentively to the stakeholders and bring everybody on board…Don’t say because you’re the Electoral Commission, you’re just going to do what you want”.
Meanwhile, a group calling itself the Inter-Party Resistance Against the New Voters’ Register has vowed to resist every move made by the EC to change the existing biometric system.