Electoral Commission awards contract for biometric registration

STL/HSB/Genkey company Limited, an information technology firm, has been awarded the contract for the procurement of Biometric Voters Registration (BVR) system for the 2012 general election.

It was selected by the Electoral Commission (EC) from a list of 47 companies that responded to the proposals for the expression of interest advertised in the media. Seven out of the 47 were initially shortlisted.

A document titled “Chronology of Biometric Voter Registration Procurement Process”, which contains the road map for the procurement of the BVR, prepared by the EC and distributed to political parties, stated the contract was awarded on October 4, 2011.

It said on May 23, 2011, the EC’s procurement department invited pre-qualified vendors to bid for the contract.

On July 11, 2011 six qualified vendors submitted their bids and three weeks later, on August 2, 2011, the EC undertook a technical evaluation of the tender documents of two vendors shortlisted for field tests.

According to the document, the EC invited stakeholders, including political parties to observe field and lab tests and a month afterwards the EC’s procurement team visited the local offices of the two shortlisted firms.

Intelligent Card Productions Systems (ICPS), which was one of the companies that submitted proposals/tenders for the contract was not shortlisted because according to EC sources, it did not have a certificate of incorporation.

Initially, ICPS went to court but reversed its decision and complained to the Public Procurement Authority.

However, on September 27, this year, an application for an interim injunction filed against the EC by ICPS was thrown out of court. The injunction sought to prevent the EC from allowing other companies to engage in the biometric registration of voters (BVR) for the 2012 elections.

That was the second time ICPS had filed such a writ against the EC, after the first one had been dismissed by the Accra Fast Track Court (Commercial Division) earlier last month.

Source: Daily Graphic