With just 40 days to the presidential and parliamentary elections, the controversy over the cost of the rebranding exercise by the Electoral Commission has been revived.
When the Electoral Commission chair was appointed by President John Dramani Mahama in June, 2015, one of her priorities was to rebrand the Electoral body. Among them was the introduction of the New Logo.
Launching the EC’s five-year New Strategic Plan at the Best Western Premier Hotel in Accra on the 26th of April, 2016, Charlotte Osei unveiled a new logo and website. This generated a lot of controversies mainly from some political parties, individuals and civil society groups.
The NPP criticized the rebranding as a misplaced priority. It said with just a few months to the elections, the EC was better off focusing its attention and resources on cleaning the 2012 voters’ register.
At the launch, she refused to disclose the cost of the exercise, insisting she had to first speak to her financial department.
Six months after the launch, the Electoral Commission says it is still not in a position to disclose how much was spent on the exercise. It indicates it is a five year strategic plan and so is still in the implementation period.
But former Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) and anti-corruption campaigner, Vitus Azeem says the continuous refusal of the EC to disclose the cost involved raises a lot of suspicion about how the entire project was carried out.
“It raises suspicion about the way the whole process took place so if it’s a five or ten year strategic plan, the EC should be able to tell Ghanaians’ how much it cost. They owe us that responsibility”.
On his part, Governance Expert, Dr. Eric Oduro Osae says the inability of the EC to make known how much was spent in the rebranding exercise is an indication of mismanagement of resources.
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