IMANI Africa calls for investigation into disposal of election-related materials by Electoral Commission
Policy think tank IMANI Africa has raised concerns about the conduct of the Electoral Commission (EC) regarding the disposal of election-related materials, prompting a petition to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for an investigation.
IMANI Africa’s Founding President, Franklin Cudjoe, expressed that the commission’s actions in the ‘premature retirement’ and disposal of laptops, digital cameras, printers, scanners, and fingerprint verifiers are suspect. He claimed that there seems to be a conflict between the commission’s responsibility to utilize resources judiciously for the benefit of the people and its inclination to make decisions favoring commercial vendors.
Cudjoe stated that the disposal of these resources may amount to “misappropriation”, “wastage”, and “misuse” at a time when the country is facing financial constraints and under an IMF-supervised fiscal regime.
According to Cudjoe, the equipment in question includes devices worth over $3000 each, collectively amounting to tens of millions of dollars. He argued that the EC should have either donated the equipment to other government agencies or sold them through a transparent public tender process to ensure value for money.
Furthermore, IMANI Africa raised concerns about the lack of proper data handling and protection standards in the transfer or disposal of the sensitive equipment, pointing out that the EC and its commercial partners may not have followed the necessary protocols.
The organization is calling for a thorough investigation into the matter to ensure transparency and accountability in the disposal of election-related materials by the Electoral Commission.
