Electoral Commission has not violated any law in auctioning BVDs — Dr. Serebour replies IMANI
The Electoral Commission (EC), through its Director of Electoral Services, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, has given an explanation for the decision to sell off obsolete Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs).
The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) was earlier urged to look into the EC’s conduct regarding the disposal of election-related materials by the policy think tank IMANI Africa.
The founding president of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, expressed dissatisfaction with the commission’s decisions to dispose of computers, digital cameras, printers, scanners, and fingerprint verifiers, citing a conflict between their duty to use public resources responsibly and their favoritism towards commercial vendors.
Cudjoe claimed that, considering the country’s financial limitations, this kind of action amounted to “misappropriation,” “wastage,” and “misuse” of resources.
However, the EC disclosed in a statement that the present Commission used out-of-date BVDs that were obtained before the 2012 elections in the 2019 District Level Elections (DLE).
The previous administration had intended to refurbish these outdated devices for the 2018 Referendum and the 2019 DLE, despite advice from the Managers of the Commission’s Biometric Infrastructure to the contrary owing to the devices’ nearing end of life.
Dr. Quaicoe stated that the EC behaved legally when he declared in an interview with Citi TV that the Finance Ministry had given them authorization to sell off their outdated equipment, including the BVDs.
He went on to explain that the sale was properly publicized in the Daily Graphic and that the Madina recycling company—one of the six auctioneers—was selected after a selection procedure that included interviews.
“I want to put on record that the BVDs and BVRs were those which were used before 2020; we acquired new ones. So, once we acquired new ones, these ones were obsolete, we’re not using them. They were still occupying space, so the Commission wrote to the district valuer, STC, they did the evaluation of all the materials, and we have documentation to that effect.
“We sent permission to the Ministry of Finance seeking permission to dispose of. They also replied and gave us the permission to go ahead. The Commission interviewed six auctioneers and one of them was picked. And a little recycling company bought them located at Oyarifa; they have EPA approval to do all those things. The auctioneer advertised it, look for February 1, 2024, Daily Graphic.”
“Not at all, State valuer assessed it, we wrote to the finance ministry, approval was given, and the items were valued,” the EC said in response to a question about whether they had broken any rules in disposing of the equipment. The objects were put up for auction, and they conducted interviews. Every cedi that was made was deposited into the Consolidated Fund. We used the legal channels.”
He continued by saying that since they had done nothing wrong, the commission was not concerned about the controversy surrounding the auctioneering. Since we haven’t broken any laws, we’re not concerned. The records are present,” he said.