Member of Parliament for Ashaiman, Ernest Norgbey, has described the Electoral Commission's failure to fully furnish him with appropriate information on its procurement process of consultants as unconstitutional.
The Electoral Commission, through its lawyers, declined to provide the NDC MP details on how it selected its consultants for the upcoming December 7 polls, after his request.
According to the EC, per the full remits of the law, persons who apply to be given information are liable to pay an amount of money, but the amount in question has not yet been approved by parliament.
Thus, their inability to release the information to Ernest Norgbey.
The Member of Parliament who didn’t seem quite pleased with the response said, in an interaction with the Citi FM that, the excuse “is a very bogus one.”
He said; “I was requesting for information on some consultants the EC procured but unfortunately, they came with a very bogus reply that can never be found on law. That because some fees and charges had not been approved by parliament, they cannot provide me with those information.”
Ernest Norgbey argued that the law which the EC speaks of has not been implemented, “is the law in force? With or without the RTI bill you can still go to any institution and get any information that you need. So when they’re basing their issue on the non-existence of the fees and charges, so for that reason, they cannot provide information, it just shows that they’re hiding something. They want to hide behind their technicalities and perpetuate illegalities,” he insisted.
The Member of Parliament further hinted of a possible legal suit against the Electoral Commission, to compel them to make available in hard copy form or on a flash drive, the record of the proceedings for the said procurement.
Member of Parliament for Ashaiman, Ernest Norgbey