Electoral Commission (EC) on Thursday announced that it has awarded the contract for the construction of the new Production and Disaster Recovery Datacentre to Persol Systems Limited and began processes for construction.
The telecommunication giant, MTN, has also secured the contract to provide network or internet connectivity services to the various district offices of the Commission.
The selection was made following a successful international competitive tender process and subsequent short listing of bidders last year, in compliance with the Public Procurement Act regulations.
Mr Samuel Tettey, a Deputy Chairperson in charge of Operation at the EC, made the disclosure at a briefing of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Accra, to justify EC’s decision to compile new voters’ register and Biometric Voter Management Solution (BVMS) ahead of the December 7 elections.
The meeting provided the opportunity for the Commission to take feedback and inputs from the CSOs, in order to enhance the electoral process.
Mr Tettey, in a presentation, said the compilation of a new voter register and acquisition of Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) would enhance the credibility, integrity and transparency of the December 7 Parliamentary and Presidential elections.
He said based on the assessment conducted by two independent biometric consultants on the current biometric system, it concluded that the current biometric system was obsolete and risky to rely upon for the general elections in view of the 47 per cent failure rate.
Additionally, the EC paid US$400 million to the Vendor, Superlock Technologies Limited (STL) annually for maintenance of the biometric solution, thus, describing it as a drain on the public purse.
He said the EC spent two million Ghana cedis to repair the BVDs before they were deployed for the District Level Elections on December 17, last year. In view of that, Mr Tettey explained, the EC decided to procure new BVDs and biometric kits that are modern, reliable, robust and affordable for the December 7 elections, to safeguard the integrity and credibility of the elections.
Source: Fiilafmonline/JoyNews
