EC's Procurement Of Biometric Register - Court Gives Go-Ahead

Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan - Electoral Commissioner

The Commercial Court, a Division of the Fast Track High Court, Tuesday cleared the way for the Electoral Commission (EC) to award the contract for the procurement of the biometric register for the 2012 general election.

That followed the court’s dismissal of an action by Intelligence Card Production Systems (ICPS) for an injunction to restrain the EC from awarding the contract.

The ICPS is one of the disqualified bidders for the biometric registration of voters.

The court, presided over by Mrs Justice Barbara Ackah-Ayensu, also awarded GH¢5,000 costs against counsel for the plaintiff, Mr E.D.K. Letsa, for abusing the court process.

The ICPS, in its application, had prayed the court to restrain the EC from awarding the contract on the biometric registration pending an appeal at the Appeal Court.

In her ruling, Mrs Justice Ackah-Ayensu said granting the application or reliefs sought by the plaintiff would mean the court was undermining its earlier ruling in which the same plaintiff had brought a similar complaint that had been dismissed by the court.

She said the current application by the plaintiff constituted an abuse of the court process and was without any merit.

Arguing on behalf of his client, Mr Letsa had said the current motion was different from the previous one which had been dismissed because the application was seeking to restrain the EC from awarding the contract pending an appeal.

He said the motion on the grounds of appeal by the plaintiff had been well indicated in the application, as well as the reliefs sought by the complainant.

Mr Letsa explained that when the application sought by the plaintiff was granted, it would prevent the EC from excluding ICPS from the bidding process.

He said the time period in the previous application was different from the current one and the discretion of the court with respect to the previous application was broad, while the current application was narrow.

“My Lord, we think the court has jurisdiction over the case and throughout our submission we have shown that you have the power to determine the matter. In this proposition, we are seeking that the reliefs being asked for should be granted to serve the public interest,” he added.

Mr Letsa argued that the EC breached the Public Procurement Act and there was, therefore, the need to protect the public interest.

He said looking at the present application, the risk of justice would be more against the plaintiff than the defence.

He said aside from the reliefs that the plaintiff sought from the court, the EC had to obtain a Legislative Instrument from Parliament before it could roll out the biometric registration exercise and that could possibly be in November this year.

Counsel for the EC, Mr James Quarshie-Idun, prayed the court to dismiss the application because the motion was frivolous and without merit.

He said that was the second time that the plaintiff had brought the matter to the court seeking the same reliefs as the previous motion.

He said Rule 28 of the Courts Act indicated that the application of the plaintiff had not been properly served before the court and a further delay in the contract process would have dire consequences for the nation.

Mr Quarshie-Idun said so far the plaintiff had not filed any application at the Court of Appeal and that the injunction was just to abuse the court process. GNA