EBC DUMPS E25M VOTING MACHINES, WANTS E15M

MBABANE – A basic laptop retails at E4 000 but, lo and behold! the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) procured these gadgets at E9 118.26.

The EBC procured 500 of the unbranded laptops at E4 559 127.89 in 2013 from Face Technologies (Pty) Ltd, a South African company. This is the company that provided the EBC with election management solutions that amounted to E24 872 990.14.
An election management system (EMS) is the set of processing functions and databases within a voting system that defines, develops, and maintains election databases, performs election definitions and setup functions, formats ballots, counts votes, consolidates and reports results; and maintains audit trails.

However, these laptops and software procured by government may be discarded as the EBC requires another E15 million to lease or procure an election management system to be used in the upcoming national elections in 2018.
When procuring the laptops, EBC also bought ruggedised lockable carry cases which were retailed to the commission at E7 854.76 apiece. In total, the 500 cases retailed at E3 927 379.21. Also the EBC forked out E854.84 for a photo background cloth that was used when capturing pictures for the voter identification cards. In total, this tallied E427 418.24. This is one of many exorbitant spendings that has been witnessed in recent times by governmentHead of Secretariat Richard Phungwayo confirmed that a request was forwarded to government.

In retrospect, government in 2013, paid E24 872 990.14 to a South African company for the procurement of 500 units of machinery accompanied by software - to accomplish the same tasks.
The over E24 million election management solution was provided by Face Technologies, a South African company. The EBC, however, in its 2013 national elections report, noted a number of discrepancies that emanated from the procured election management system.

Phungwayo said: “We asked for E15 million from government to have an election management solution; and it was allocated under head 60.”
The head of secretariat said this meant that the money could be accessed when EBC had shown reasons why they needed to procure another machinery and software for the national elections despite having spent about E25 million in 2013. “Technology alters; so, we can’t be hogging something that was riddled with challenges in the past and argue that it works,” he said.

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