Executive Director of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, says he is happy the Electoral Commission Chairperson, Charlotte Osei and her two deputies were dismissed.
Mr. Cudjoe on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue, said their dismissal presents an opportunity for IMANI Africa to carefully scrutinize other corrupt institutions.
“Like we do in this country, some public officials, depending on their persona we canonize them too much and I think it is unfortunate. And I’m happy that this has happened because some of us are beginning to now go and look at every Ministry, every agency because there is just a lot going on in several agencies that will fail this test and I think it is a good thing for me. I’m happy, I’m really happy this happened.”
Charlotte Osei could’ve sought help during EC fracas – Franklin Cudjoe
Mr. Cudjoe however expressed some measure of sympathy for Charlotte Osei. In his view, Charlotte Osei faced stiff opposition from some of her own staff because she was an “outsider”.
“At the end of the day, when all this brouhaha was happening within the Electoral Commission, my conclusions were that, because of the way she came into the office, those established groups there did not necessarily want her. At some point, she became almost an isolationist.”
“She could have sought help, probably from outside and probably spoken to people in authority that these were the challenges she was having. For some of the procurement issues, some of my understanding really is that there were all kinds of sharks prepared to eat from that same thing and she didn’t want it so she had to take certain actions which, unfortunately, has landed her in this trouble.”
[contextly_sidebar id=”h4VB86AwQ3xKvUyZwSnsn1ncxMRRdJPx”]Charlotte Osei was found to have breached procurement laws in the award of several contracts in her three-years at the helm of affairs at the EC.
This led to her, along with two deputy commissioners, also accused of procurement breaches and financial malfeasance being removed from office.
Charlotte Osei was investigated over six separate allegations of various procurement breaches, for which a prima facie case was established.
Ursula, others must also fall
Franklin Cudjoe further indicated that it was time for heads to roll over the KelniGVG Contract following the removal of the Electoral Commission (EC) Chairperson, Charlotte Osei, and her two deputies.
He maintained that there were also procurement violations in the awarding of the $89 million contract over the five-year period.
“As Electoral Commissioners Fall on Violations of Public Procurement Act, and the Public Financial Management Act, controversial $178m KelniGVG Contract [over 10 years] must suffer same and more,” Franklin Cudjoe said in a statement.
“We need to uphold the rule of law at all times. Now, let us look at the curious case of the KelniGVG contract supervised solely by the Ministry of Communications and how it also violates the Public Procurement Act, and the Public Financial Management Act,” he added.
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By: Marian Ansah/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah
