Charlotte Osei
It has emerged that former Chairperson for the Electoral Commission (EC), Madam Charlotte Osei, signed an agreement to purchase new biometric machines to replace the current (old) ones.
Executive Secretary of Mass Action Committee, a Civil Society Organisation, Atik Mohammed, has made this claim, and further disclosed that the procurement agreement with Superlock Technology Ltd (STL) was signed on June 28, 2018.
According to him, per his investigations, that would have cost the nation some $18 million dollars more than the amount the current EC boss, Madam Jean Mensa intends to use to purchase new machines for the 2020 election.
“. . . like I said, it is not only this EC boss that wanted to buy new machines. In fact, Madam Charlotte Osei on the 28th June 2018 signed procurement agreement with STL to purchase new machines but the cost of those machines under Madam Charlotte Osei as compared to those that the current EC boss wants to procure, Ghana is making savings to the tune of over $18 million,” he argued.
Speaking on Okay FM’s ‘Ade Akye Abia’ Morning Show, Atik Mohammed indicated that all the political parties including those resisting the compilation of a new voters’ register are well aware that the current machines are outmoded to the point where they cannot support new software update.
“The only option is to do undertake a new registration exercise so that when new machines are purchased, our generated registration template can be read by the new machines; the data can be stored in a format that is compatible or readable by the new machines we are going to purchase,” he explained.
“If we all do agree that our current biometric machines have issues and that we cannot migrate the data easily because it is not possible unless we get a data which can be stored in a format which can be read and the only way to do that is a new registration and the cost is reasonable, why this political stampede over each other?” he quizzed.
–peacefmonline