EC ‘fact checks’ Bright Simon’s claims of ‘thrashing’ perfectly working $150m election equipment

The Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) has responded to a claim by Bright Simons, a vice president of IMANI Africa, that the electoral body threw away election equipment that cost the nation over $150 million which are in perfect condition just to push through with the procurement of new ones.

In a statement issued on Friday, April 26, 2024, the EC accused the IMANI vice president of peddling false claims he has been championing since 2020.

It indicated that the said equipment, which Bright Simons shared pictures of on X, were indeed auctioned in 2022 and not recently as he suggested.

The Commission further added that the equipment which were auctioned did not cost the nation $150 million, neither did their replacement cost $300 million, as suggested by Bright Simons.

“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). 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 this 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 EC wrote.

The commission went ahead to share figures on the old equipment it auctioned in 2020, which showed that the devices which were procured in 2018, cost less than $150 million.

It also shared details of its procurement in 2020, stating that its decision to procure new devices was prudent because it saved the country a lot of money.

What Bright Simons said:

The IMANI vice president, in a series of posts shared on X, on Sunday, April 21, 2024, said that the EC moved the equipment used during the 2020 election to a warehouse for them to be processed as scraps after the Auditor General failed to check if there is a need to procure new equipment.

“The Auditor General REFUSED to conduct an asset audit of the existing EC biometric voting equipment to settle the issue of whether the country needed to spend $150m on new devices given the 1000s in stock of good condition. Finally, those devices have surfaced!

“After waiting for us to 'forget' about the issue, the EC has quietly sneaked out the 1000s of devices purchased from 2016 to 2020 to a plant to ‘recycle’ for cheap plastics & metals at a massive loss of millions of dollars! The IMF & World Bank subsidise this conduct!” he wrote.

Simons indicated that the EC’s action is an example of the wastefulness in Ghana’s political system which ‘frightens’ him.

“To throw away $150 million or so of equipment, many in perfect working condition, without a proper asset audit, just so you can push through fresh procurement is SHAMEFUL & the clear reason why Ghana eventually went bankrupt & went to the IMF, which seems happy condoning this,” he added.

View the documents shared by the EC below:









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