It will surprise you to know that the official website for the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) which was reported to have cost the state about $108,510, which is equivalent to Ghc 579,853.51, has not been functional for a long while now.
Procurement issues, relating to the redesigning and maintenance of the website were found by the Chief Justice’s committee which heard the petition for the removal of former EC Chairperson, Charlotte Osei, were some of the reasons for her removal from office, 3News.com reported.
The CJ’s committee found that two contracts totaling $108, 510 dollars – $32,510 for re-designing and $76,000 for maintenance – were unilaterally awarded to DreamOval Ltd by Charlotte Osei in breach of procurement laws.
“As a result, an initial contract for the sum of US$32,510.00 was awarded to Dreamoval Ltd. to re-design a website for the Electoral Commission…
“Accordingly, the Chairperson executed another contract with DreamOval Ltd to enable USAID pay the extra bill of US$76,000.00…”
From the evidence, Mrs. Charlotte Osei failed to adhere to the procurement procedure sanctioned by the Public Procurement Act and the Electoral Commission’s own internal procurement structures “, portions of the committee’s findings read.
Some observers say the website went down soon after Jean Mensa’s leadership took over the affairs of the EC following her appointment as the new chairperson.
Our independent monitoring of the website, for at least, the last two months, confirms the inaccessibility of the website. A visit to the homepage of the url www.ec.gov.gh gives the feedback:
“Bandwidth Limit Exceeded
“The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.”
This feedback, Clement Asamoah, head of IT Company, Stages Hub, explains is an indication that the website has used up all its allocated resources.
