CHRAJ TO PROBE CORRUPTION AT EC

Mr. Joseph Wittal, CHRAJ Boss 

A three member panel of the Anti-Corruption unit under the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), is to investigate acts of bribery allegation at the Electoral Commission (EC) where voters who have misplaced  their voter Identity (ID) cards and wish to replace them are made to pay unofficial amount of money. 

The panel met with the private investigative journalist – Dundas Whigham, who went undercover to expose corruption at the EC. Evidences have since been submitted to the commission, but they have failed to act on the matter. 

Evidences of the investigative work were aired and discussed on Joy FM Super Morning Show Programme, Corruption Watch on January 10^th, 2018. 

Meeting With CHRAJ

The meeting follows a complaint the investigator made to the Tiger Eye Foundation and Klarity (both anti-corruption organisations) alleging extorting of unofficial amount of money by some EC staff before replacing lost Voter ID cards to prospective voters.

The two anti-corruption organisations forwarded the complaint to one of their partners in the fight against corruption - the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), where it was subsequently forwarded to CHRAJ on the 8^th December, 2017.

The three member panel headed by Madam Adeline Woananu, a senior investigator said they have received a letter from the GII and wanted to probe further on the said corruption case.

“We have received a complaint from the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) alleging corruption at the Electoral Commission. GII stated in the letter to contact you (investigator) for further clarification and evidence on the matter”, she said.

After being showed the evidences involved in the corruption case, the panel stated their willingness to probe further by inviting all parties involved and publish their report shortly.

Facts of the Case

On January 10^th, 2018, Joy FM Super Morning Show programme – Corruption Watch, aired and discussed a clear example of extortion where prospective voters who have misplaced their voter ID Cards must go through should they wish to have them replaced. 

The video evidences were since uploaded on Klarity.org – an anti-corruption platform where users can share acts of corruption by providing reliable facts for actions to be taken.

Officially, prospective voters who have misplaced their Voter ID must pay an amount of Ghc5 at the Ghana Commercial Bank and take the bank receipt to the EC district office where the previous registration took place to have it replaced, an official statement by the EC says.

However, some EC staff, including those at the EC head office in Accra and Kasoa are manipulating the system by charging unofficial amount of money ranging from Ghc30 to Ghc50 per person before replacing them.

The investigator posed as someone who has misplaced his voter ID and went to the Kasoa EC office, in the Awutu Senya East District of the Central Region where the staff Madam Harriet Djanie was caught on tape, twice collecting Ghc30 and Ghc40 before replacing lost voter ID. 

The reason was that they have run out of laminate and that one of their staff must be sent to another EC office to get some of the laminate. Thus, the investigator must take care of the person’s transportation (TNT). 

However, checks from the EC then, revealed that there were no shortage of laminates.

This occurred on the 8^th June, 2017. However, the investigator's camera failed to get a good content to back his claim during the time money (Ghc30) was being exchanged from one hand to the other.

In order to prove that corruption had taken place and the quest to gather enough evidences, the investigator went there again on 16^th June, 2017, but this time through a colleague with the assistance of a good recording gadget. 

Again, the EC staff demanded Ghc40 (an increase of Ghc10 in less than a week); and the same reason –“we have run out of laminate”.  

The unofficial amount may seem too small, but bigger corruption in nature. In one of the videos, the staff showed a list of “over 500” people who were yet to come for their cards but “there is no laminate”. Should Ghc40 be multiplied by 500, the result will be Ghc20,000; just at one EC office.

In one of the videos, a security officer at the EC’s Head office confirmed this same practice of extortion by some of their members.