Franklin Cudjoe questions EC's spending plan amid missing biometric devices concerns

Ghanaian

Franklin Cudjoe, the Founder of IMANI Africa, has expressed reservations regarding the Electoral Commission's (EC) budget allocation for the upcoming elections, particularly in light of reports of missing biometric devices.

The concern arises following revelations that several biometric verification devices (BVDs) are unaccounted for, raising doubts about the integrity of the electoral process.



Read full article/> Minority Leader Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson disclosed on Tuesday, March 19, that the EC confirmed the loss of seven BVDs, heightening worries about potential election interference.

Dr. Forson has urged the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and other security agencies to promptly update the public on their investigations, emphasizing the risk posed by these missing devices to future elections.

In a statement, Franklin Cudjoe cautioned Parliament and the Finance Ministry to scrutinize the EC's expenditure plans for 2024, citing past controversies and inefficiencies in electoral operations.

Read the statement below:

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, l 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.

Franklin Cudjoe.