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The Electoral Commission of Ghana has debunked an accusation by IMANI, a policy think tank, regarding their budget for the acquisition of new biometric system.

In 2020, based on experiences with equipment during the 2019 District Level Elections (DLE), the Commission sought approval to acquire new BVDs, BVRs, a data centre and data recovery center.

According to claims by Bright Simons and IMANI,  the Commission spent $150 million to purchase the BVDs and BVRs.

Reacting to these accusations in an interview on Peace FM’s “Kokrokoo” show, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission (EC), set the record straight on procurement of the  Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) and Biometric Voters Registration Kits (BVRs) in 2020.

He challenged the IMANI figures stressing the entire new biometric technology was nowhere near the $150 million.

In his submissions, the Commission purchased all its equipment including building new data centers at a reasonable cost, hence saving Ghana millions of money.

“At one point, this IMANI claimed we used 300 million to acquire our new biometric technology and later revised their figures to 150 million. I want to put on record that the entire system amounted to 68 million. Yes, 68 million for everything including 74,500 BVDs, 8,500 BVRs and two data centers,” he told host Kwami Sefa Kayi.

He wondered how IMANI reached their 150 million-dollar figure, asking “how did they do their calculations?”