An EC Audit Observation Memorandum indicates that the Electoral Commission (EC) paid an amount of ¢11,952,894.50 to telecommunication service providers for the transmission of the 2016 election results.
The commission is said to have spent that amount on four major telecom service providers each taking a total of GH¢6,591,402.53 for just faxing the results from the 10 regional offices under the virtual private network platform.
Under Election Results Management System (ERMS), networks like Airtel, Vodafone, MTN and Tigo took away GH¢2,534,877.54, GH¢1,104,245.61, GH¢202,282.64 and GH¢2,749,996.74 respectively for faxing the results.
The EC had reportedly wanted to carry out electronic transmission of the results from all the 29,000 polling stations akin to the process in Kenya at an estimated cost of between $32 million and $35 million, despite vehement protests by the opposition parties at the time.
Apart from the telcos, other private firms such as Perfect Business Systems, which is currently under investigations over its alleged role in the troubled biometric project at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), also benefited from the ERMS project.
Perfect Business Systems had three contracts to supply laptops, computers and monitors and laptop bags at a total cost of GH¢ 4,107,717.95, which are broken down to GH¢1,094,500.00, GH¢2,704,500.00, and GH¢308,717.95 respectively.
Other companies that were given ERMS contracts were Brown Kasaro, which had a total of GH¢242,646.45 for customization of ERMS while Dunia Ramazani received GH¢82,797.13 and GH¢70,465.34 respectively for consultancy fees for ERMS.
IT Markets Limited received four different payments of GH¢88,390.10, GH¢234,305.00, GH¢188,670.00 and GH¢346,500.00 for the supply of ERMS software, Network Switches and Cables for ERMS, hardware for ERMS and HDMI Video Switches.
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