….Integrity questioned; procurement plots alleged
Several people, continue to express concern about the revelations that some seven biometric verification machines, had been stolen from the Electoral Commission (EC) custody.
Amongst them are the President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe and Colonel (rtd) Festus Boahen Aboagye, a security analyst and a teaching consultant at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC).
While, the President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, alleged that the laptops the EC reported missing, were nothing but a decoy to declare the remaining machines compromised and set a procurement opportunity to waste money on new machines; Col Aboagye, described the development as “a shameful dereliction of duty”, and asked the EC Chairperson to resign.
In several posts on Facebook, including some 14 questions, Col Aboagye, fired at Jean Mensah saying, “The EC Chair isn’t fit for office. She lacks the honesty and courage to report the loss of 7 BVDs with all its implications for the 2024 election integrity and national security”.
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The Minority Caucus in Parliament on Tuesday, March 19, alleged that seven biometric verification machines, had been stolen from the EC’s custody. In response, the EC held a press conference at its head office on Wednesday, March 20, and explained that it was rather ordinary laptops that were missing and not BVDs as alleged.
The President of IMANI Africa, followed up with a statement, urging Parliament and the Finance Ministry, to stop any possible procurement as a result of the missing items, he said the extravagant US$150 million expenditure incurred during the 2020 elections, must not be allowed to repeat itself.
Mr Cudjoe in his statement said “Parliament and the Finance Ministry should be careful with EC’s Spending Plans in 2024.
“Ghana’s Electoral Commission is at its prancing and pranking best again. Having earned the dubious accolade of ‘Voting mafioso’ for clandestinely disenfranchising my people in Santrokofi Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi on the eve of the last election in 2020, I was warming up to their recent calmness in accommodating sensible views of political parties on issues such as the use of indelible ink and closing polls at 5 pm instead of the jocular and amateurish contrary views they held.
“I knew something wasn’t quite right with the EC’s turnaround. It was just not in their DNA to be this graceful. And voila- the EC surreptitiously reported to a parliamentary inquiry that it had lost some biometric voter machines that were procured by rigging procurement process, leaving the country with a needless total bill of $150m in 2020- which the IMF has now accepted contributed to our economic atrophy”.
“Sadly, we never heard the EC report the missing biometric voter machines to the Police until an innocuous question at a parliamentary hearing revealed this fiction yesterday.
“Please, Parliament and the Finance Ministry, must ignore the EC. Claims of missing biometric voting machines is a decoy to declare the remaining machines compromised and set a procurement opportunity to waste money we don’t have on purchasing new machines.
“They did the same in 2020 by strangely discarding all biometric machines which Ghana had invested up to $60m in upgrading and successfully used to run the 2016 general elections and 2019 district elections with near-zero error rates, to purchase new overpriced biometric machines through a heavily rigged procurement process.
Col Aboagye, in a series of posts, wrote “The EC Chair isn’t fit for office. She lacks the honesty and courage to report the loss of 7 BVDs with all its implications for the 2024 election integrity and national security”.
In one other post, he wrote “The #ECChair must resign over the loss of 7 biometric devices, which amounts to a shameful dereliction of duty.
“Now we need to know the answers to the following questions, among others:
1. When was the loss detected?
2. Who detected the loss?
3. How was the loss detected?
4. Who had custody of the BVDs before they were lost?
5. Where were the BVDs located before they were lost?
6. Were the losses investigated by the EC?
7. What were the findings of the EC’s investigation?
8. What is the EC doing to find the BVDs?
9. Were the losses reported to the Police?
10. If no, why not?
11. If yes, what is the status of the Police investigations and any Police findings?
12. What is the value of the 7 BVDs?
13. What are the significant implications of the loss on the integrity of the 2024 electoral process?
14. What remedial measures can be taken to mitigate the impact of the loss on the 2024 elections?
After the press conference of the EC, the retired military officer, made another post asking; 7 BVDs for registration or verification, and or 5 Laptops? Which is which?
The EC, had denied the theft of seven missing Biometric Verification Devices (BVRs) from the EC’s stores.
At a news conference in Accra and addressed by the Deputy Chairperson in charge of Operations, Samuel Tettey, the EC, said no BVD, had been stolen.
It was in response to allegations by the Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, that seven of the biometric verification devices (BVDs) which the EC recently used to register and verify voters were missing.
Dr Ato Forson, said officials of the EC confirmed it during a meeting with the leadership of the Minority Caucus, led by the Deputy Minority Leader, Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah, this week.
He subsequently called on the Ghana Police Service and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to expedite investigations and ascertain the whereabouts of the devices.
Briefing the press on the missing devices in Parliament yesterday, Dr Ato Forson, said he heard of the incident but declined to come out immediately.
“I heard seven of the biometric devices are missing and I was curious about the matter and strangely I decided not to bring it out because we were to have a meeting with the EC.
“I could not attend that meeting but my deputy and other Minority leadership were at the meeting where the EC confirmed that seven of the biometric devices were indeed missing,” he said.
The Minority Leader, said he was concerned and worried about the missing devices because being in the hands of an unknown person “can compromise future elections that Ghana will have.”
But Mr Tettey said the EC during a recent routine servicing of its Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) Kits discovered the theft of five laptops from the kits.
He explained that BVR Kits, which comprise a laptop, camera, scanner, and printer, were entirely separate from the Commission’s Registration Data Systems and were incapable of manipulating election outcomes as suggested.
Mr Tettey said those kits, though crucial for voter registration, required specific activation to function accordingly.
“Without such activation, they serve no purpose beyond their individual components as a laptop, camera, scanner, or printer.
What this means is that, they are of no value beyond what they were manufactured to be.
“Similarly, the stolen laptops cannot be utilised for voter verification or registration. It remains just a laptop.
As such, they cannot be used to compromise our systems and undermine the credibility of the upcoming elections in December 2024,” he said.
Mr Tettey said the integrity of the EC’s systems and elections remained intact. He said the EC placed high value on its assets including the BVR Kits and BVDs, hence its continuous reliance on the police and other security devices to protect all its installations.
“The Electoral Commission remains committed to upholding the highest standards of transparency and integrity in its operations and elections,” he said
