Posted
on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Friday, July 28, 2017
Georgina Opoku-Amankwah, one of the deputy commissioners
of the Electoral Commission (EC), has broken her silence in the ongoing
corruption allegations that have beset the commission.
According to her, the Chairperson, Charlotte Osei,
has peddled falsehood in the alleged corruption scandal and abuse of office that
have hit the top hierarchy of the election organizing body.
Mrs. Opoku-Amankwah, who is the Deputy Ccommissioner
in-charge of Corporate
Service, said Mrs Charlotte Osei told a pack of lies in her response to the
petition that has been filed by some EC staff calling for her (Madam Osei’s) impeachment.
The petition for the impeachment has since been sent
to the Chief Justice for action by President Akufo-Addo in line with
constitutional requirements.
Explosive
Issues
The EC boss, apart from claiming that her deputies
deliberately worked to frustrate her stay in office as the chairperson, also
openly accused Mrs. Opoku-Amankwah of signing contracts worth over $40m without
her knowledge and authorization between July and September 2015.
However, in a 25-point response to the EC
Chairperson’s claims sent to the Economic and Organised Crime Office in what
appears to be a never-ending scandal that has engulfed the commission, Mrs.
Opoku-Amankwah said, “The Chairperson’s claim that there was a deliberate
strategy to frustrate her work and tenure is palpably false and a figment of
her own imagination.”
Divisive
Figure
The Deputy Commissioner appeared to suggest that it
was rather Mrs. Osei who was the problem at the commission and not her or Amadu
Sulley - Deputy Commissioner in-charge of Operations - whom Mrs. Osei has also accused
of engaging in fraudulent deals and other illegalities.
False
Claim
“The claim by the Chairperson that she was never
given an office is false. An allegation like this gives the impression that the
commission was created after the Chairperson was appointed,” Ms Opoku-Amankwah
averred.
She said the EC boss was given a befitting office used
by her predecessor, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, in the commission’s headquarters in
Accra adding, “Strangely, she refused to take up the office, claiming that she
had a security audit conducted by a security detail from the office of the president
and indicated that the office was not fit and safe for her occupation. Rather,
she disorganized the whole Human Resource Directorate by choosing the
director’s office as a place of her preference.
“She accordingly instructed the then Director of
Human Resources, who was occupying that office, to vacate the office for her
use. She thereafter contracted her own artisans to do a complete makeover
fitting with a shower cubicle and other facilities, thereby rendering our
artisans redundant. She also changed the fittings and furniture in the office,”
the deputy commissioner said.
Country
Tour
Ms Opoku-Amankwah said that every effort to get the
Chairperson to embark on a familiarization tour of EC offices in the country
failed because Mrs. Osei expressed security concerns and insisted that since
her (EC boss’) assumption of office, she had never visited any of the regional
or district offices of the commission.
She said when they proposed to renovate the Charlotte’s
official residence for her after Dr. Afari-Gyan had packed out, she rejected
the proposal and Ms Opoku-Amankwah noted, “This suggestion estranged her
relationship with the former Human Resource Director.”
NCCE
Accommodation & V8
“For reasons best known to herself, she continued to
live in the accommodation provided by the NCCE, claiming that the official residence
is not fit for her status. Mrs. Osei had also declared that the official V8
Land Cruiser vehicle bought in 2014 - just a year before she assumed office - and
had been used by Dr. Afari-Gyan, was not fit for her status and arranged for a
2015 model from the presidency and kept Dr. Afari-Gyan’s vehicle for her
household use.
Spurious
Allegation
Ms. Opoku-Amankwa described as spurious, allegation
by Charlotte Osei that she had met a bloated budget of GH¢1.7 billion, saying it
“exposes her lack of understanding by the budget drivers of an election year
budget.”
She continued, “I wish to state that there was no
occasion that the Chairperson called the deputies to a meeting in connection with
the budget that they refused. This strenuous attempt to accuse the deputies in
the budget iteration exercise is not only unfortunate but also undeserving of
an institution.”
She said on the two contracts worth $41 million to
an IT firm, the commission had unanimously approved the deal before Mrs. Osei
assumed office but was rather unilaterally abrogated by the Chairperson. “As at
the time of writing, neither deputies knew the outcome of the abrogation as she
dealt directly with the vendor,” Madam Opoku-Amankwah disclosed.
She said she never unilaterally promoted directors
but that had been done in collaboration with the Fair Wages and Salaries
Commission and the Ministry of Finance before Mrs. Osei took over.
Mrs. Opoku-Amankwah said all contract documents were
in case files at the commission and could not have refused to hand them over as
claimed by Mrs. Osei.
Managerial
Deficiencies
“Her managerial deficiencies, coupled with her poor
human relations and lack of appreciation for team work, is too manifest to
escape public judgement,” according to the Deputy Director in-charge of
Corporate Services.
She claimed that the allegation of staff fuel coupon
rate having been increased is bogus because Mrs. Osei had been the greatest
beneficiary and added that there had not been any financial year that the
Chairperson was precluded from budget discussion.
She said before Mrs. Osei took over, management
meetings were called every Monday, Wednesday and Friday but she stopped the
practice and decided to allow meetings at her ‘whims,’ adding, “She resorted to
using some members of the commission in performing the duties of the deputies.”
Mrs. Opoku-Amankwah described as “frivolous, useless....the
allegations leveled against her and asked that they be treated with contempt.
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