The Electoral Commission’s (EC) contract with Dream Oval was funded by the USAID and awarded in line with USAID procurement policies, Mrs Charlotte Osei, the EC’s Chairperson has stated.
“The USAID has not complained of any breaches of policies and has agreed to pay the additional costs necessitated by the additional security infrastructure that Dream Oval had to put in place for the Commission’s website,” Mrs Osei has stated.
She made this known in a 17 paged document response to a petition by unknown concerned staff of the EC through their lawyer to the President for her impeachment.
The petitioners stated in one of their 27 claims that “Mrs Charlotte Osei has consistently approved for payment of $76,000 to an IT company, Dream Oval Limited without contract contrary to the Financial Administration Act.”
Mrs Osei in her response said: “There has been no breach of any law or policy put in place by USAID with regard to this matter. This is therefore, another baseless allegation founded on mischievous imaginations,”
The petitioners also claimed that: “The Chairperson through her arrogant posture brought embarrassment to the Commission by refusing to grant audience to the members of the National Peace Council and the leader of the Africa Union Delegation Mr. Thabo Mbeki, the former President of South Africa during the 2016 General Election.”
However, Mrs Osei said it was patently untrue that the chairperson refused to meet President Thabo Mbeki and the National Peace Council.
She said the Peace Council came on an unscheduled visit to the office at a time the Chairperson was away from the office.
She noted that there were subsequent conversations and meetings with the Chair of the National Peace Council, which the Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante could confirm.
“The Chairperson met President Thabo Mbeki on December 1, 2016 at the Movenpick Hotel at the request of President Mbeki. There is pictorial evidence of the meeting as posted by President Mbeki on social media,” she said.
“There were also several phone conversations with President Mbeki before and after the December elections.
Indeed, after the elections, President Mbeki called personally to congratulate the Chairperson on her warmth, hard work, exemplary leadership and excellent organisation of the elections,” Mrs Osei added.
She said it would be most helpful for the petitioners to establish basic facts available as matters of public record in their quest to vilify the Chairperson.
Source: GNA
