Jean Mensa – Chairperson of Electoral Commission
Details
emerging from the Electoral Commission (EC) indicate that the election
management body was paying a whopping $4 million annually to a vendor for the
servicing of biometric verification equipment.
The
Chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensa, who made the revelation, said the annual
financial obligation was met irrespective of whether there was an election or
not, a retainership of sort.
This,
according to the commission, was not a feasible arrangement considering the quantum
of money that literally went down the drain for no work done.
As
to the vendor being angry by the cessation of the contract, she said “it’s
Ghanaians who should be peeved about how much they were losing under the unwise
decision to part with so much money for no work done.”
Cost Benefit Analysis
According
to Mrs. Mensa, a cost benefit analysis of the arrangement informed the EC’s
decision to change the status quo and consider an arrangement, which goes for
$600,000 for similar services with extras for same period.
“Why
should we pay $4 million as though we are acquiring new equipment? It just
doesn’t make sense,” she said.
She
also said that a cost benefit analysis of the biometric voter management system
has shown that building an entirely new system for the 2020 general elections
is far cheaper than the cost of servicing the old biometric machines that were
used for the 2016 elections.
The
Canadian consultant the EC has been engaging since 2011 made an assessment of
the equipment and the financial obligation thereof and found it unsustainable
and advised against its continuation.
Antiquated Equipment
The
EC boss explained that the biometric verification equipment under review was
acquired in 2011.
In
her estimation, the consultant somewhat consider the biometric equipment to be antiquated,
given the advancement made since the period of their acquisition.
“Technology
has evolved,” she said, adding that even with the said equipment in place
during the last elections, high incidence of manual verification took place at
voting centres across the country. The financial implication should be
considered.”
The
consultant, who advised against maintaining the verification devices under
review, is the one responsible for the 2011 architecture
of the EC, she added.
“Our
decision has saved the EC $20 million,” she disclosed.
She
revealed that the ownership of the critical software of the election management
body is an affront to the country’s sovereignty.
“The
vendor proprietorship of the software is not right,” she stressed, explaining
that “even the password for the system is not known to the IT staff of the EC.”
The
EC, according to Jean Mensa, wants to avail itself of the opportunity of
knowledge transfer, which under the previous vendor, did not take place.
“This
among others informed our decision to abrogate our previous arrangement,” she
said.
Fair green
The
EC, contrary to what is being touted in some circles, has not entered into an
arrangement with any vendor yet. A request has been put out though.
Two
vendors, Fairgreen and Beerhand, are on the table but the former has experience
and skills in such matters whereas the latter lacks both.
“We
have written to the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) as required by law. No
deal has been reached yet,” Mrs Mensa said.
Sole-Sourcing
“Sole-sourcing
is the preferred option because we want to avail ourselves of the knowledge
transfer component which comes with this arrangement and the current situation
in which we find ourselves would not permit us to go for competitive
tendering,” she said.
“STL
was supposed to have transferred knowledge but it did not,” she mentioned.
“We
do not have any vendor yet. A pre-qualification announcement tender is about to
go out.
“The
EC would soon embark on recruitment of person with requisite skills,” she
announced.
No To Lock-In System
Ms
Mensa said the new EC is opposed to the lock-in system in the previous order
and would reach out to stakeholders so the management of elections would be
enhanced and transparent.
Security At EC
“Following
threats of the past fortnight something was done to change the status quo of
security management at the EC,” she said to a question about what some persons
consider to be inappropriate security checks at the EC’s headquarters.
“The
new security arrangement followed advice from a security expert and against the
backdrop of recent threats from some quarters. The security level has been
raised accordingly. It’s not noticeable when one is within the compound of the
EC,” she said.
“We have been in office for the past eight months and it was only a fortnight ago that we stepped up our security. Even as we speak, when you come to our headquarters you would not find any heavily armed security agent loitering at the place,” she added.
By A.R. Gomda
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