The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu Constituency in the Volta Region, has asserted that the Electoral Commission (EC) does not have an asset register, which is a basic document meant to capture and record its assets across the country.
He said the EC by their action were eroding public confidence and trust in its core mandate of conducting elections and protecting votes.
Mr Ablakwa described as ‘scandalous’ the fact that despite the amount of taxpayer and donor funds pumped into the EC, it did not have a basic document as an asset register adding that “it is equally scandalous that despite receiving billions of taxpayer and donor funds over the years, the Commission did not have an Asset Register to capture and record its extensive assets across the country”.
He cited landed properties, office premises, guest houses, residential accommodations, motor vehicles, office equipment, computers and accessories, furniture and fittings as some of the assets and questioned how the EC expected to be trusted and build confidence with preserving the sanctity of votes yet it had failed to keep an asset register.
He asked why not keeping proper records of what the Ghanaian taxpayer and development partners purchased for the Commission but expected the citizenry to trust and build confidence in it to preserve the sanctity of votes, both of which remained under its supervision.
“We must always remember that trust and public confidence in our institutions and public officials are earned, and when they are eroded or absent, the consequences for our democratic stability, peace, unity, harmony and cohesion are dire,” Mr Ablakwa cautioned and alleged that 21 top officials of the Commission had failed to submit statutory returns relating to their positions citing an Auditor General’s report.
“Who are these mysterious 21 top management staff and why were they allowed to violate Article 9 (1) of the Commission’s Bargaining Agreement of 2018 which stated that every employee would be required to give particulars about themselves on the personal records which must be inserted on their personal files but not available,” he decried.
