Draw Out US$ 35m From US$ 150m New Register Allocated Funds To Fight COVID-19 - Akufo-Addo Told
Communications Team Member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dela Edem, says it will be better for President Akufo-Addo and his finance team to withdraw monies required to prepare Ghana against the spread of COVID-19 outbreak from the funds allocated to the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voter’s register.
“ . . I don’t think President Akufo-Addo’s government is fair to tell us they can raise $150m for the Electoral Commission to compile a new voter’s register as confirmed by the Finance Minister Hon Ken Ofori-Atta, but cannot adhere to WHO’s advice that Ghana needs $35million to fight COVID 19?”
“They should extract 35million dollars out of the new voters register compilation allocated funds to provide the necessary requirements needed by the ministry of health to protect lives against the coronavirus disease outbreak,” he added.
Speaking on UTV’s ‘Adekye Nsroma’ newspaper discussion programme, the NDC communicator, noted that certain actions and inactions on the part of the EC is courting ignominy for the country. He therefore accused the electoral body of not being transparent in their findings, warning of severe repercussions for the country.
INTRODUCTION
Following the Electoral Commission’s (EC) decision to compile a new voters’ register as well as purchase a new biometric voter management system ahead of the 2020 December polls, policy think-tank IMANI Africa, has presented what it calls ‘fresh evidence on the EC’s lies’ about the current state of the biometric system.
According to them, the new evidence establishes that the decision by the EC in such a pivotal election year is just to pave the way for a ‘corrupt procurement gig’.
Presenting the findings at the press conference in Accra on Tuesday, March 10, Vice-President (in Charge of Research) at IMANI Africa, Bright Simons indicated “The EC has blatantly and consistently lied about the true facts of the current biometric system and its ongoing effort to procure a new one. The EC’s claims that it will cost just $56 million to procure a new system whilst the cost of refreshing and maintaining the existing one would cost $74 million are dangerous untruths”
He continued and said; “The EC used one day to disqualify well-qualified bidders, claiming that they had reputational problems, when the vendor it awarded the tender to, after the one day of evaluation, Thales (and its Gemalto unit) has even bigger scandals hanging over its head. In fact, it was once globally blacklisted by the World Bank”.
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