The Data Protection Commission will not prosecute the Electoral Commission (EC) after a report by the Auditor-General revealed that the Commission had sold voters’ data to a private company without an agreement.
This is because if entities cooperate with the Commission, it will not rely on prosecution since there is no benefit and what is of benefit to the commission, the EC should be accountable and transparent, which is of benefit than prosecution.
Mrs Patricia
Adusei-Poku, the Executive Director of the Commission, said the issue would be
handled outside of the court adding that “prosecution is a last resort option,
it is what we usually do when the entity is failing to cooperate with the
Commission.
“We’re in talks with the EC concerning the issue
while a court action may seem tenable, that is not the route the commission
will take because we will use all available channels, we want to sit down and
talk as first option because we know data protection is new to the nation, it
takes time to understand what an accountable and transparent organisation is,
if there are gaps, we will rather sit down and discuss.
“A sanction, in my view, works better under
current circumstances and commission will ensure the right things are done and
we may not prosecute individuals who played a role in sale of data to software development
agency, Bysystem Limited, if EC complies with our directives,” Mrs
Adusei-Poku indicated.
A special
audit carried out by the Auditor-General on EC has revealed Commission sold
voters’ data to an Accra-based software development company, Bysystem Limited,
bought the data from EC and sold them to financial service providers for a fee.
The Audit on EC was part of special audits
carried out by Auditor-General on selected state institutions in 2018, which
the report also revealed there was no agreement between EC and Bysystem Limited
on the sale of voters’ information.
“We further noted that Bysystem Limited failed
to remit the 20 per cent commission due to EC, in respect of charges for
accessing the data, for 2016 and 2017 financial years,” the report stated and
EC, according to the report, responded to its findings and stated that there
exists a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the commission and Bysystem
Limited,” the reported said. -myjoyonline.com