EC Responds to IMANI and Bright Simons Over Procurement of BVRs In 2020 | Elections

The Electoral Commission has responded to claims by Mr. Bright Simons, Vice-president, in charge of research at IMANI Centre for Policy and Education claiming that the Electoral Commission spent US$150 million on Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) in 2020.

This was contained in a statement signed by Mr. Fred Tetteh, Deputy Director, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation.

According to the EC, since 2020, Mr. Bright Simons and Imani have persistently published misinformation to the public, claiming that the Electoral Commission spent US$150 million on Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs).

The commission says it is instructive to note that, prior to their peddling this figure, they had quoted US$300 million as the cost of the Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) and Biometric Voters Registration Kits (BVRs) procured by the Commission in 2020.

“Only this week, Mr. Simons repeated this false claim on X(formally Twitter) while commenting on old BVDs that the Commission had indeed auctioned in 2022, some of which were found at a recycling plant in Accra.

“The Commission would like to take this opportunity to provide the general public with the facts that anyone can verify, as follows:

1. In June 2018, the previous administration of the Commission had budgeted and received approval, to invest US$56 million for the refurbishment of Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) and Biometric Voters Registration Kits (BVRs) a Data Centre and Security enhancements under the voter registration and voter verification projects. The contract was specifically geared towards the conduct of the 2018 referendum and District Level Elections (DLE).

The Voter registration project included the refurbishment of 1,670 BVR kits and the procurement of 1,000 new BVDs whiles the Voter Verification Project included the refurbishment of 46,200 BVDs as well as acquisition of 10,000 new BVDs.

However, the current administration of the Commission made a strategic decision ot cancel the contract for the total refurbishment and the procurement of new BVDs, opting for a minimal maintenance arrangement.

2. In 2020 based on the experience with the equipment in the 2019 DLE, the current Commission applied and received approval from the PPA to acquire new BVDs, BVRs, a Data Centre and a Data Recovery Centre.

3. Below, we provide the general public with the approved 2018 budget for BVDs and BVRs in comparison to the approved 2020 budget for new BVDs, BVRs, the cost of BVDs and BVRs required in 2020 at the 2018 approved prices, and the savings that this Commission made for Ghana by strategically opting to buy new equipment in 2020.

See attched the PPA-Approved Budget for BVDs and BVRs in 2018 and 2020 and the full statement.