The immediate past chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs. Charlotte Osei has declined to comment on the current happenings at the EC.
Mrs. Osei who was removed from office on grounds of misconduct said it would not be proper for her to comment on activities at the EC since she was a former commissioner.
According to her, it would be an interference for former chairs to comment on the work being conducted by the EC.
She was speaking in an interview with KSM last Friday.
Mrs. Osei told the host the only thing she owes this country is her silence when it comes to activities of the EC.
“As a former Chair, it would be unfair to publicly comment on whatever is happening at the commission now. Respect must be given to the current commissioners to do their work without the interference of commentaries from former chair"s.
"And so, to any question you have on the current process, I would say that all I owe to my country, and to the commission, would be my silence and my prayers. And would have to leave it at that.”
Mrs Charlotte Osei and her two deputies, Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku Amankwaa were removed from office in 2018 for misconduct.
Mrs Charlotte Osei, breached procurement laws in the award of several contracts, prior to the 2016 elections.
Excerpts of the 54-page report which warranted her removal said: “In November 2017, the Honourable Chief Justice of Ghana established a prima facie case on some of the allegations made against the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission as contained in the petition submitted to His Excellency, the President of the Republic.”
“In all, the Chief Justice made prima facie case against the Chairperson on six of the allegations contained in the said petition.”
For all the six allegations, the committee found Mrs Osei culpable and said her explanation that she was not aware that she needed to go through procurement for some of the contracts because the monies involved were from donor partners, was untenable.
“The findings we have made on the allegations made against Mrs. Charlotte Osei, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, clearly gives a catalogue of breaches she inflicted on the Public Procurement Act. In all the procurement activities which we had to investigate, the findings have been that Mrs. Charlotte Osei failed to comply with the Public Procurement Act.
“The procurement activities include the engagement of Sory@Law and Associates for the Commission, the award of several contracts to STL, the two contracts for the partitioning and consultancy service of the new office block, the three contracts awarded for the construction of pre-fabricated district offices of the Commission and consultancy services thereof; the two contracts awarded to Dreamoval Ltd, and finally the two contracts awarded to Quazar Limited from South Africa. Evidence before the committee showed that all these contracts were awarded by Mrs. Charlotte Osei contrary to the Public Procurement Act” the report noted.
“On this point we disagree with Mrs. Charlotte Osei because we are convinced that procurement forms an important part of the core business of the Electoral Commission. Indeed, without procuring relevant goods and services, the Electoral Commission will find it difficult, if not impossible, to independently conduct free and fair elections in the country. In fact, procurement is so important to the Electoral Commission, that was why no less a person than the Chairperson is made the head of entity of the Commission,” the report read in part.
Source: ghanaweb
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
That is wisdom. I hope the loud mouth politicians will learn from her.
The lady is intelligent. The only problem she has is joining a party called NDC. She is indeed on the right path working to restore her image and credibility. The babies with sharp teeth-type of politicking are not the way forward for the new young generation of politicians whose main goals are lying and propagating their way through to curry favor from their political leaders for political appointments.
maturity , wisdom, self discipline are part of the priceless gifts GOD has given mankind if you refuse to exercise yours, you either become a ***barred word*** or everything become expensive for you even with money. madam you have done well, sometimes when you offend someone your attitude alone either allow the one you have offended to forgive you or to get more offended. bless you madam
It is not enough to be quiet. Some of the allegations continued to bastardize her and she has to speak to them else we would not have her version of the story. The current EC is in court telling the court and ghanaians that there is no way to ascertain and remove persons who have registered with NHIs card as directed by the court. But her EC led have told us in the past it has removed 56,000 of such persons. This made the entire EC incredible. Ghanaians deserve explanation of this.
VERY WISE LADY, THUMPS UP A TRUE LADY
What a modest woman!! I think someone should seriously consider this lady as a running mate!! Then she will get a shot at our presidency!! I hope the women are watching.
We will still wait for your comment.