BV machines rot under Afari-Gyan's watch

Just a year after the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections, the Biometric Verification Machines (BVM), which were acquired at a cost of $94 million and used for the exercise have started deteriorating at the Electoral Commission (EC).

The development, The Chronicle learnt, has occurred because the devices have not been kept in a conducive environment to ensure longevity though the actual number of the affected machines are not known, The Chronicle understands that quite a number, out of the over 26,000 machines, are in a sorry state.

The Ranking Member of the Special Budget Committee and Member of Parliament (MP) for Wenchi, Prof. George Yaw Gyan-Baffour, who raised the issue on the floor of Parliament yesterday, said the situation is so gloomy that if not addressed immediately, the country would lose millions of cedis in repairing the damaged Biometric Verification Machines, and procuring new ones.

He suggested the need to construct well-conditioned warehouses across the country to store the technology-driven machines to safeguard and enhance the integrity of future elections.

The Wenchi legislator was contributing to the motion moved by the Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, for the House to approve the sum of Ghc141,082,137 for the services of the EC, for the year ending December 31, 2014.

Commenting further, he said his committee had taken notice of the construction of a national warehouse complex that had been factored into the EC's 2014 budget, and appealed to the Finance Minister to ensure that "funding for this project is released, and on time, in order to save the country from spending large sums of money in servicing, maintaining and replacing malfunctioned biometric verification equipment and kits each election year."

The MP for Manhyia South, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, in contributing to the motion, also spoke passionately about the deplorable state of the biometric verification devices.

He told the House about a promise made by the Finance Minister, somewhere last year, about warehousing of the aforementioned devices, but had not been fulfilled.

"Mr. Speaker, an issue was raised about warehousing of these equipment. The Minister of Finance assured us, as a committee, that monies will be released for the warehouses to be constructed for the equipment to be stored.