Some parties give EC fake accounts – IMANI

Think tank IMANI Africa has revealed that some political parties in Ghana have been presenting fake accounts to the Electoral Commission (EC) when filing their mandatory financials.

Vice-President of IMANI, Kofi Bentil, said information available to the think tank suggests that “even the accounts that have been filing in the past were not authentic”.

He reiterated that: “Some of the accounts that were filed by the political parties in the past, we all know how much they spend generally...but the accounts they submit or submitted in the past, if you look at it, it doesn’t look like the real picture”.

“You have a situation where people are seeking to run this country and they are lying on paper”.

Mr Bentil, who was speaking at an Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) forum on development and political parties in Ghana on Wednesday, 12 December 2018 requested the EC to ensure that the laws that make it mandatory for political parties to present audited financial reports to the election management body, are strictly adhered to.

“This meeting is for the EC to simply do what the law says it must do,” he said.

He wants the EC to mount pressure on the political parties “to straighten their issues” in order to check political party financing in the country.