New register: EC storms parliament today - Majority Leader

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Majority Leader in Parliament, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has disclosed that the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa is expected to come to the House today, Tuesday, June 16.

He says per the standing order of the House, any public institution of the state that has been given money to do something on behalf of the state must render accounts to the House on how the money was used.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, he explained that the Commission will first meet with the committee then they will present a report to Parliament afterward.

"They are expected to appear before the committee tomorrow to give them a break of the money parliament approved for them to spend," he clarified.

He, however, noted Parliament will further meet to discuss the report at the plenary and the Chairperson invited for better and further particulars if the need be.

EC Budget

Parliament approved the over GHS 390 million budget the Electoral Commission needs to compile the new voters' register ahead of the polls in December 2020.

Documents provided indicate that the EC’s budget will be spent on procurement, recruitment, training, data processing, publicity and allowances.

The EC’s Head of Communications, Sylvia Annor said the Commission has provided enough evidence and defense to support their claims for the budget.

“The Electoral Commission has given certain figures to back the argument that we are raising. When we are talking about cost, in 2017, during the limited registration exercise, we spent GHC 487,980,714.

'Now the 2020 registration is expected to cost GHC 390, 265, 486 which is even cheaper than the limited registration conducted in 2016. And when you talk about the obsolete nature of the system, we spent 2 million ghana cedis to refurbish the old system and the vendor indicated in the report that going forward, we either need to acquire a new system and the upgrade was going to cost us more,” she said.

The break down of the GHS 390 million budget is as follows; Parliament approved GHS1.3 billion for the Electoral Commissions activities for the year, as compared to the GHS 1.8 billion approved in 2016.

Also, more than GHS161 million will be spent on an official who will undertake the registration exercise as allowance and GHS 156 million is expected to be the cost of procurement materials.