Chief Executive Officer of the InterCity State Transport Corporation (STC), Nana Akomea has called for a Committee of Inquiry to be set up to assess the concerns raised by IMANI over the Electoral Commission's disposal of election-related equipment.
The Electoral Commission's recent disposal and auctioning of equipment it deemed obsolete has incurred the wrath of IMANI, a policy think tank, causing them to petition the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to investigate the electoral management body.
IMANI's Accusations
The Executive Director at IMANI, Franklin Cudjoe, in a statement on Monday, May 6, cited the EC’s actions as constituting “misappropriation”, “wastage,” and “misuse” of resources.
"We do not believe that the EC and its commercial counterparties in these transactions complied with the highest standards of data handling and protection required in the transfer and/or disposal of such sensitive equipment. At any rate, none of them had the requisite certifications to be trusted with such a task”, he asserted.
The institution's statement further read that "the EC’s most recent conduct has been necessitated by a need to curtail transparency and accountability, and thus was motivated by a collective conflict of interest and potential corruption. By its actions, it is attempting to erase inventory records and physical evidence of the blatant falsehoods it has told over the last four years regarding the purchase history of expensive electoral equipment”.
“We asserted our longstanding claim that the EC’s electoral equipment is a portfolio of multiple items, bought and refurbished at different intervals between 2011 and 2019. That portfolio does not uniformly date to 2011 or 2012 as the EC has falsely and persistently claimed, and could thus not be so uniformly obsolete as to warrant a firesale to mysterious bidders, who have kept the prime portions for themselves and discarded the rest to be used as scrap. Ghana cannot continue to be milked in this fashion”, it added.
Akomea's Remedy
In Nana Akomea's reaction, he argued that a higher authority must be constituted with the EC and IMANI present to argue out the issue.
The Committee, he maintained, should "televise the proceedings" so that "at the end of the day, the important thing is that probity and accountability is served" for Ghanaians to know which party is telling the truth or otherwise.
He believed this will grant a final resolution and settle the case.
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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Storage of sensitive data isn't done on laptops, bvd etc. IMANI should ask GSS whose data is more sensitive than EC where data is stored. This half baked and ineptitude of this so called think tank must not be tolerated any more.
Nana, I think that IMANI's unbridled, inward-looking, and ill-informed attitude towards the EC has become so obvious that we do not need to give it this prominence, let alone engage the whole Commission of Inquiry to investigate it on camera. The EC's performance under Miss Jean's leadership has been so remarkable that I bet it can dispose of any rotten think tank. I guess the EC is not ready to hire IMANI for certain services, hence the blatant hatred. Although I'm sometimes tempted to suggest that the EC should hire IMANI to expose its incompetence, I don't think it's necessary as a matter of principle. You see, criticism is as healthy as it is destructive if it is not well managed. But, Kudos! EC is on top of issues.
It appears peace fm now belong to nana akomea..He is the lone fighter on the battle ground and speaks no sense again. Things are fallen apart. The npp has no soul anymore. Nobody with a "fine brain" today will tell u npp will retain power.
It's IMANI's usual delibrate agenda to turnish the iamge of EC,they must stay focus,and ignore them.They're doing the bidding of their paymaster,NDC!
Nana Akomea must not waste precious time on this mischievous political entity called IMANI.How many time have not they churned out lies,propaganda and mischief against EC.They said all sorts of things against EC prior to 2020 elections, to the extent that they claimed the conduct of EC would allow COVID-19 to kill all Ghanaians, yet the electoral body conducted the most credible peaceful and efficient,cost effective elections in our history.By 3pm that election day,almost every voter had already casted his vote and left.EC must be continue to be diligent,focus,competent,transparent and effective in all its dealing, as it IGNORES that "corrupt empty talking tank"