You didn’t budget for PPE’s, where did you get money to procure them? – Haruna Iddrisu to EC

Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu has challenged the Electoral Commission (EC) to disclose its source of funding for the procurement of Personal Protective Equipments(PPEs) for the compilation of new voters register since the 2020 budget presented to parliament by the commission did not make provision for the purchase of the PPE’s.

According to the Tamale South Member of Parliament(MP), the denial of the commission that it did not receive PPE’s from the government to enable it proceed with it’s new voter registration compilation is untenable and does not add up.

Mr. Haruna Iddrisu at a press conference last week questioned why the government made provision for the supply of PPE’s to the EC at the detriment of other institutions that need the logistics most.

Though the minority leader sourced Director of Election Services Dr. Serebour Quaicoo on the claims of the commission receiving PPE’s from the government, the Electoral Commission in a statement denied the claims.

But the minority leader maintains his position that the EC has received PPE’s from the government.

“The E.C. needed to be reminded that the Commission did not make any provision for the procurement of PPE in its 2020 budget as approved by Parliament in December 2020, since no one anticipated the pandemic at the time of the approval of the budget.

The Commission should tell the Ghanaian public the source of the funds used for the procurement of its PPE since they claim these were not provided by the government and these were also not provided for in their budget for 2020,” Mr. Haruna wrote in a statement.

He further stated that the Electoral Commission has lost its good image following several hasty and unhealthy decisions it took in the past adding that “Questions on the integrity of the EC and its leadership are issues of public knowledge and cannot be attributable to the press statement by the Minority Caucus in Parliament.

For instance, the integrity of the E.C. and its leadership was battered when it was forced to withdraw, on two separate occasions, the Constitutional Instrument for the conduct of the 2020 elections, due to elementary errors discovered by the Minority in the Instrument. (It is only the current leadership of the Commission that would seek to use Regulations to amend an Act).

This exhibition of incompetence and lack of diligence and consequently, the integrity of the E.C. in the eyes of the public, is not and cannot be attributable to the press conference of the Minority.

My counsel to the E.C. is to devote their effort to repair their battered image as an independent Institution (not even subject to the control and direction of the Government) and to win public trust and confidence rather than the usual indecent haste in waiving empty words regarding its integrity”.