The institution tasked with the sole onus to conduct and regulate election activities in Sierra Leone, the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone has once been exposed to shady procurement deal done by officials in awarding the contract for the voter registration exercise and printing of voter cards in Greece.

The contract for the voter registration process was awarded to Infinity ICT in the tune of $8.5 million and   subcontracted to Laxon in the tune of $2.2million and the contract for printing voter cards was awarded to Constrat and Inform Lykos in the sum of $1,433,950 as the cost for one ID card is $0.42 USD.

The Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed Kenewui Konneh has in a well-attended handpicked media press conference told journalists that what they are seeing as voter identity cards was not what they are expecting to see and get from their vendor.

However, Mr. Konneh said they did not agree with the contractors to print black and white photos of voters but their agreement with them was for colored photos of voters, adding that they are going to take a line of action against the contractors Constrat and Inform Lykos for not fulfilling the bidding agreement.

Despite the ECSL Boss now shifting the blame of blurred and black and white photos of voters, sound political analyst have described the deal as cunning and shady, even though his institution has failed to do the needful before the voter cards were jetted in the country for distribution. These political analysts have admonished the ECSL to carry their burden of blame on their backs because they failed to see sample work done by the vendors before awarding a national contract to such. They said that they will not trust the outcome of the 2023 general elections results based on the many deliberate pre-election plans to rig the elections in favor of the incumbent.

The Africanist press in a report published on 28th September, 2022 revealed that the $8.5 million contract awarded to Infinity Information and Communication Technology was grossly bloated by ECSL even though Infinity ICT lacked the proven technical capacity to supply the prerequisite voter registration technology as per the bidding document. Information revealed that ECSL awarded Infinity ICT an 80% inflated contract knowing fully well that the company does not have technical capacity to undertake the contract. It furthered that the ECSL stated that Infinity won the contract based on lowest bid criteria, although documents have revealed that Infinity ICT proposed contract offer of $7,457,700 was higher than the amounts submitted by two other bidders, Orchid ventures and Bintex Incorporated Ltd.

Other sources have disclosed that there was discordance between the National Public Procurement Authority (NPPA) and the Electoral Commission on procurement. The database of the NPPA’s records on the contract and ECSL’s financial records for the same contract awarded to Infinity and Laxton Group. Information revealed that ECSL financial documents show that $8.5 million contract was awarded to Infinity which in turn subcontracted Laxton on $2.2 million offer on the same contract, meaning that ECSL spent well over $10 million on laptop computers, fingerprint scanners and associated voter registration software alone.

According to the Africanist Press, the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone awarded two procurement contracts worth over $10 million to two Freetown companies that did not show technical capacity to supply the voter registration technology and software as the process was fraud and marred with shady procurement irregularities.

It further revealed that the National Public Procurement Authority in their quest to sweep under the carpet the procurement scandal of ECSL presented procurement details that does not match with details on the ECSL bid notice and Bank of Sierra Leone payment records, adding that NPPA records on the contract claimed that ECSL awarded the contract in January last year, when in fact the bid notices for the said contract were advertised in late February last year and contract awarded in April 2022 in contrast to the January 2022 date stated by NPPA on their database.

Confirmed sources have also intimated to the Africa24 that the actual value of the contract is $2.2 million as ECSL made a 10% advance payment to Infinity ICT in the tune of $213,963 from ECSL Bank of Sierra Leone Account transferred to Infinity ICT Account held at the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank.

Furthermore, the Chief Electoral Commissioner has received huge condemnation from the electoral public for utterances he made during the press conference on 11th April,2023 that “We contracted for coloured voter ID cards but not black and white from the vendor.” These electorates have described the words of the ECSL Boss as inappropriate, persuasive and full of lame duck excuses because they failed to see sample works of the intended bidders before awarding the contract to the vendor which they speculated is a partner to the said company.

“Even me way nor go school ar dey test di klos bifo ar pay for ram. If me way nor go school get da common sense for see n test somtin bifo ar pay for ram. Y mek NEC dem bossman nor see sample of the ID card bifo dem go print we face dem to black n white?” Chairlady of Abacha traders asked.

Despite the deal has been done, because what has been done can never be undone, but the ECSL Boss has got heavy criticism by the public at large for such sub-standard voter cards that they said is not safe for purpose because it not water resistible and an empty mere vanguard that could be torn apart.