Crisis is brewing at the headquarters of the Independent National
Electoral Commission, INEC, in Abuja, following the decision of the
Commission to contract the printing of the ballot papers to be used for
the presidential and governorship elections to a foreign firm at the
cost of N6 billion.
Although the Commission is yet to award the
controversial contract to any of the foreign firms, it has, however, set
in motion the process that will lead to the award of the pricey job to
either an American or European firm any moment from now.
To
ascertain which firm should be given the job, top officials of INEC are
set to depart Nigeria this week for the United States of America,
Germany, Italy and Ukraine in the first leg of the move to inspect elite
printing companies, which can handle the job, classified as ‘security
documents’ by the commission.
Under the plan, which has already been
wrapped up by the commission, the sum of N6 billion is to be used in
printing ballot papers meant for the presidential and governorship
election slated for February next year.
Similarly, the commission
has set aside the sum of N3 billion to be paid to local printers to
produce the ballot papers to be used for the National Assembly and House
of Assembly elections in Nigeria next year.
In all the
commission will spend a whopping N9 billion for the printing of ballot
papers for the five set of elections, which the electoral body has
decided to stagger because of its claim that it does not have adequate
logistics to run it simultaneously.
A competent source in INEC told
Vanguard that many officials, who were uncomfortable with the decision
of the management to farm out the job to outsiders, have made their
opposition known to INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega.
One of the
sources close to the commission said: “The INEC officials will visit
the United States of America, Germany, Italy, Ukraine, among others to
inspect some printing presses that will produce the ballot papers for
the next general elections in 2015.
“INEC will specifically produce
the presidential and governorship ballot papers abroad while those of
the National Assembly and House of Assembly will be printed in Nigeria.
The proposed budget for the overseas printing is put at over N6 billion.
Vanguard
learnt that those opposed to the printing of the papers abroad have
reportedly drawn the attention of INEC Chairman to the fact that it was
against the interest of Nigeria for such action to be taken at the time
when the Presidency had already made a case for the printing of the
documents locally.
The antagonists of the proposal, Vanguard also
gathered, had reportedly opted to report the action of the management
to President Goodluck Jonathan, who only last week made a case for the
printing of security documents with the Nigerian Security and Minting
Printing Company, as a means of promoting national security and job
creation.
The angry officials are said to have queried the rationale
of taking such a huge and security-related job outside Nigeria when
there were many local printing companies that could conveniently handle
it. To prove their point that the papers could be printed locally, the
officials cited the successful printing of the ballot papers used in the
Anambra, Ekiti and Osun elections by local contractors.
According to them, the papers that were printed within the country were foul-proof and passed all INEC’s security checks.
While
kicking against the foreign contract, the officials, who pleaded
anonymity, called on the Federal Government to stop the commission from
awarding the job to foreigners especially as the materials needed for
the printing were also available in the country.
They also
pointed to the fact that the 2011 election was postponed because of the
non-delivery of the ballot papers sprinted abroad on time.
But a
senior INEC official told Vanguard on Monday that the commission would
remain focused in its honest and earnest desire to ensure the success of
the 2015 election.
Defending the decision of the management to print
the papers abroad, the officials, who pleaded anonymity because he had
not been authorized to speak on the matter, said that no company in
Nigeria had the capacity to produce the quality and quantity of paper
required and be able to deliver to the commission before December this
year.
“We are concerned about the capacity of printing press in
Nigeria. The time available to us as a commission to conduct the
election and the quality and quantity of materials to be delivered by
the local contractors do matter to us,” the official said.
“If
you must know, for us to conduct the election in February 2015, it means
that we must take delivery of the ballot papers in December this year
to avoid a repeat of what happened in 2011 when we had to postpone an
election because of the late arrival of ballot papers from South
Africa,” the officer added.
Reminded that the President last week
made a case for the printing of such vital documents with the NSMPC of
Nigeria, the officer said, “Well, as we get along and the capacity of
the company to handle such assignments grow, we will patronize it. For
now, there is none in the country to do such complex job for INEC,” he
said.
- Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/2015-polls-trouble-brews-inec-n9bn-ballot-papers-contract/#sthash.MPWCDced.dpuf
No comments:
Post a Comment