Policy think-tank, IMANI-Africa has stated that, it was performing its civic responsibility when it petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to investigate the Electoral Commission (EC) over the sale of equipment.
Their petition, dated May 4, IMANI expressed concerns about the EC’s supposed mismanagement of the country’s resources.
“We are gravely concerned by the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana’s handling of the nation’s scarce resources in the discharge of its duties, which conduct we believe amounts to “misappropriation”, “wastage”, and “misuse” of said resources,” the statement said.
IMANI further alleged that the premature retirement and disposal of tens of thousands of laptops, digital cameras, printers, scanners, and fingerprint verifiers by the EC is motivated by a conflict of interest and potential corruption.
In the statement signed by its President Franklin Cudjoe, IMANI explained that the recent conduct of the EC aims to curtail transparency and accountability and erase evidence of false claims he says were made by the commission regarding the purchase history of expensive electoral equipment.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story on May 6, Mr. Cudjoe explained that, the petition was not a personal attack on anyone in the Commission, but rather a means to scrutinize the expenditure of the electoral body and prevent Ghana from spending money it did not have.
“IMANI has no problem with anybody at EC. We have problems with an institution that engages in shady procurement and wastefulness. When the IMF boss came recently, to Ghana they claim they did elections for what? When the IMF boss came recently, what did she say? They said the amount of money we spent on election contributed our economic mess,” he added.
