EC Needs GH¢32 million more for biometric registration

The Electoral Commission (EC)says it needs an additional GH¢32 million to successfully execute the production of a biometric voters register. It has however commended government for announcing the provision of Gh¢50 million for the first phase of the project. The announcement was made by the Finance minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor in Parliament on Thursday July 14 while requesting for the approval of a supplementary budget. Speaking to Citi News, the Head of Public Affairs unit of the EC, Christian Owusu Parry was hopeful the processes would start this year. “We presented a budget to government for the biometric registration and the whole budget that we presented to government is in the region of GH¢82 million but we also indicated to government that we will need GH¢50 million for this year, to procure the equipment and start the preparation for the biometric registration. "That is what government is releasing immediately”. A letter from the Ministry of Finance informing the EC of government's intention to release the said GH¢50 million has already been received, he revealed. He however noted that due to the delay processes in fund transfers, “the money is yet to be lodged into the accounts but they have already informed us that the money would be released for the purpose”.