By The Electoral Commission (EC) has dismissed any claims suggesting that it allocated $150 million for the acquisition of Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) and Biometric Voter Registration Kits (BVRs) in 2020.
This response from the EC follows recent publications by Bright Simons, Vice President of IMANI Africa, alleging the expenditure of $150 million by the election management body on BVDs.
In a statement released on Friday, April 26, the EC clarified that prior to the circulation of the $150 million figure, an amount of $300 million had been cited as the cost of the BVDs and BVRs procured by the commission in 2020.
“In fact, the total cost for 74,500 BVDs, 8,500 BVRs, a new data centre and a data recovery centre amounted to $68, 661,912.67.”
The EC provided further clarification, stating that in June 2018, the previous administration of the commission had budgeted and obtained approval to allocate $56 million for the refurbishment of BVDs and BVRs, as well as for the establishment of a Data Centre and Security enhancements under the voter registration and voter verification projects.
“The contract was specifically geared towards the conduct of the 2018 referendum and District Level Elections (DLE). The Voter Registration project included the refurbishment of 1,670 BVR kits and the procurement of 1,000 new BVDs while the Voter Verification Project included the refurbishment of 46,200 BVDs as well as the acquisition of 10,000 new BVDs.”
“However, the current administration of the Commission made a strategic decision to cancel the contract for the total refurbishment and the procurement of new BVDs, opting for a minimal maintenance arrangement,” it further stated.
The EC also clarified that in 2020, drawing from the lessons learned during the 2019 District Level Elections (DLE), the current Commission sought and obtained approval from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) to procure new BVDs, BVRs, a Data Centre, and a Data Recovery Centre.
FACT-CHECKING-PROCUREMENT-OF-BVDS-AND-BVRS-BY-THE-ELECTORAL-COMMISSION-IN-2020
