Anti –corruption group, Egality Law petition EC: gives 14 days ultimatum to investigate alleged corruption at EC

Two anti-corruption organizations and Egality Law Firm in Accra have officially written to petition the Electoral Commission (EC) in connection with alleged corruption at the commission’s district office in Kasoa in the Central Region, given them 14 days ultimatum to investigate the case.

The two, Klarity – an online anti-corruption platform where users can anonymously upload corruption related videos, and Tiger Eye Foundation addressed the petition to the EC Chair, Mrs. Charlotte Osei and submitted on Friday April 11^th. A legal practitioner with Egality Law Firm, Mr. Musa Tanko was the leader of the group.

“We are now writing to you formally to petition for the investigation of this complaint, and to request respectfully that you acknowledge receipt of this letter, confirming that the matter will indeed be investigated. We would be grateful if you could ensure that this matter receives the urgent attention of the Electoral Commission. Our client [Dundas Whigham] requests that you acknowledge this letter within fourteen days (14) days”, the letter stated.

According to a Klarity user, the petition was received by the Head of Communications at the EC, Mr. Kofi Dzakpasu and he immediately forwarded to the registrar for the next action to be taken. The user added that, upon receipt, Mr. Dzakpasu mentioned that “the case was already being reviewed and this would speed up the process for the disciplinary committee to take action on the culprit”.

The petition included a formal written letter and over 500 online signatories gathered to press home the EC to take action on the matter. “Klarity have since raised a petition in respect of this matter, the signatories to which are enclosed with the hard copy of this letter”, the letter further added.

Story Background
On January 10^th and April 4^th this year, Corruption Watch – an anti-corruption progrmme on Joy FM Super Morning Show, aired and discussed an investigative work I undertook at the EC head office in Accra and Kasoa to expose wrong doing at the commission for action to be taken by the authorities concerned.

According to the EC, replacement of lost voter identity (ID) cost Ghc5. However, some staff at the two offices mentioned charge unofficial amount ranging from Ghc30 to Ghc50 aside the official amount before this can be done.

That official amount must be paid at the Ghana Commercial Bank account’s number of the EC, and then the person sends the bank receipt to the district office where the previous registration took place for new voter ID to be issued. This means that, EC staff are not to take any money at the “counter”.

However, investigations revealed that some staff at the EC’s head office have abused this directive by charging unofficial amount of money before carrying out this “public service duty”. Investigations were conducted and a staff at the Kasoa district office was caught twice in a week demanding and collecting Ghc30 and Ghc40 for this service.

Due to limited funds, my investigations cannot emphatically state that the amount of money the staff has collected from the number of people who have visited her office within a specific period.

However, in one of the videos, she pulled a list of “over 500 people” who were yet to come for their voter ID because there were "no laminate”. Five hundred (500) multiplied by Ghc40 will amount to Ghc20, 000. This is from only one office. This tells that this practice is not only petty, but bigger.

Further investigations revealed that the “no laminate” claim was untrue as a staff at the head office stated that there were enough laminate.

Source: themanualgh.blogspot.com