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Just a year after the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections, the Biometric Verification Machines (BVM), which were acquired at the cost of $94 million and used for the exercise, have started deteriorating at the Electoral Commission (EC). The development, The Chronicle learnt, has occurred because the devices have not been kept in a conducive environment to ensure longevity Though the actual number of the affected machines are not known, The Chronicle understands that quite a number, out of the over 26,000 machines, are in a sorry state. The Ranking Member of the Special Budget Committee and Member of Parliament (MP) for Wenchi, Prof. George Yaw Gyan-Baffour, who raised the issue on the floor of Parliament yesterday, said the situation is so gloomy that if not addressed immediately, the country would lose millions of cedis in repairing the damaged Biometric Verification Machines, and procuring new ones. He suggested the need to construct well-conditioned warehouses across the country to store the technology-driven machines to safeguard and enhance the integrity of future elections. The Wenchi legislator was contributing to the motion moved by the Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, for the House to approve the sum of GH�141,082,137 for the services of the EC, for the year ending December 31, 2014. Commenting further, he said his committee had taken notice of the construction of a national warehouse complex that had been factored into the EC�s 2014 budget, and appealed to the Finance Minister to ensure that �funding for this project is released, and on time, in order to save the country from spending large sums of money in servicing, maintaining and replacing malfunctioning biometric verification equipment and kits each election year.� The MP for Manhyia South, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, in contributing to the motion, also spoke passionately about the deplorable state of the biometric verification devices. He told the House about a promise made by the Finance Minister, somewhere last year, about warehousing of the aforementioned devices, but had not been fulfilled. �Mr. Speaker, an issue was raised about warehousing of these equipment. The Minister of Finance assured us, as a committee, that monies will be released for the warehouses to be constructed for the equipment to be stored. �Mr. Speaker, as we speak, the monies have not been released. It is contributing to the deterioration of these machines. �And if we are not going to spend the taxpayers� money, year in and year out, acquiring more machines, then the Ministry should note that these warehouses need to be constructed for the machines to be safely stored,� he suggested. The EC is scheduled to bounce back into action in 2014 to spearhead the conduct of the District Levels Elections (DLE), which comes off on October 7, 2014. With registration scheduled for April 2014, concerns have already been raised to the Ministry of Finance to release some funds to the EC, to enable it procure and take delivery of the machines it would need for the said elections. Dr. Prempeh, commenting further on the issue, raised the alarm that if by April 2014, those machines have not been procured and delivered, it was going to affect the dates of the DLE, and make things very complicated for the whole country. �Mr. Speaker, this time, it is not constituencies that you can fashion for only 275. There are over 6,500 electoral areas, and these machines must be configured for the electoral areas. So, there is a huge process that needs to be undertaken efficiently. �The Ministry of Finance should note that by April, 2014, the BVD must be in the country. Mr. Speaker, if these machines are not acquired by end of January 2014, registration cannot happen,� he said. Available documentation sighted by The Chronicle indicates that the EC intends to expand the number of polling stations from 26,002 to 35,000, to bring the number of voters per polling station to 800. It has also given indication to have two Biometric Verification Devices at each polling station, as well as a few more as back up for every electoral area, to ensure compliance of �No Verification, No Vote�. To ensure the smooth running of the DLE elections, bearing in mind the expansion of the polling stations, the EC intends to buy 70,000 additional BVD machines. Furthermore, the EC intends to acquire about 1,000 Biometric Registration Kits (BRK) to augment the 7,000 already in the system, to enable it undertake continuous voter registration and periodic mass registration of voters. In order to ensure the smooth delivery of its operations, and to forestall the situation where budgetary requirements of the EC are always reviewed downwards by the Ministry of Finance, the Special Budget Committee, chaired by Dr. Benjamin Kunbour, who is also the Majority Leader, has proposed that �the constitutional provisions establishing the Electoral Commission should be amended to afford the Commission the opportunity to present its budget proposals directly to the President, who would submit it to Parliament with his recommendations if any.� This, in the view of the committee, will uphold the independence of the Electoral Commission, and also grant it the same status as institutions such as the Audit Service, Judicial Service and Parliament.