August 20, 2014

To: Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Djan, EC
Office of the Electoral Commission,
Accra, Ghana
 

Ref:  AN OPEN LETTER to DR. KWADWO AFARI-DJAN, GHANA’s ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER

Dear Dr. Afari-Djan,

This is Kwaku Danso in California. I have tried to send you some private mail in the past through email but have received no response. I am going to send this through email and again make it an open letter so in case you do not get it somebody will read it in the papers and alert you. I have read you are planning your retirement and I think it is well deserved. Being in the middle and mediator between feuding power grabbers in a developing country is not an easy task and, give and take a few comments, I think you have held Ghana’s democracy in a steady hand, despite our defective constitution that should have long been amended.

I hope you get this mail.

There are three areas that I think you can do as a service to the nation before you retire, and that is if you are not too tired and can take this one or set the ball in motion and let others continue.

As you know I have been involved in the Political party processes in Ghana since 1992 when we formed GDRP and then again in 2007 when Ofori Ampofo and I and others cofounded the GNP. It is impossible for any of us to come out with the amount of money these politicians have accumulated and you and I know there is something fishy. However, we have not made our laws enough to sanitize our electoral process and make the field fair and without wasting too much money through illegal means. These are my recommendations to you:

1. IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM: The first is helping get Ghana organized with street addressing system so that individuals will not only have a picture ID but also have an address system that goes with their ID. This is long overdue and every civilized nation today has a way of identifying people that can be computerized. I have offered the suggestion since an Engineering student, to government since the Acheampong time; but nobody understood the value. I think this is not your direct responsibility but you can influence this change by working with the Minister of Interior. You know full well that if you use P.O.BOX system you can have more than one or even five Kofi Mensah at the same address. If you remember the US system, one needs a First Name, Middle and last Name, then Street address, City and Zip code, then Date of Birth. The DOB can be proven with a Birth Certificate carried and verified by any Post Office or government official such as Drivers license officer, to make it legitimate. Once that information is validated, the next is giving the person a national ID number that goes with them the rest of their life. Adding a picture ID makes it useful not only for School, Health care services, but for Banking, Drivers license, and helps establish a database for Credit system.

Kwadwo, this is not something we should have spent $150 million on, but it is already been done with the biometric system. I believe that you should make the Voters Registration all year exercise, where all people who reach a voting age can register at local Post Offices by showing their valid Birth Certificate and getting a valid ID number the equivalent of what the US calls Social Security Number. The Post offices may not have the Budget for a Camera but I think Ghana can save money by making this part private. Small Business owners can be licensed to use an ID Camera they purchase (about $2,000) and issue a Picture ID to anybody who can show their Birth Certificate and Government issued SS Number. This will allow existing infrastructures and government services to register voters and save the EC the headache and money of having to register voters every four years. The Post offices will be submitting information online or by mail monthly or weekly to your office all new registrants, whose information will be in your database.

An alternate method is if you have your Voters Registration offices open all year and have new registration candidates go there with their Proof of Citizenship or Birth Certificate or Drivers license, and you give them the Picture voters ID with the Biometric system. My guess is that it will be too expensive for the EC to maintain offices all year round in all districts and towns. I hope you take this in the spirit in which I offer them. Anybody selling equipment will tell you how desperately you need it. Some of us studied Engineering and practiced it to make processes and products in society simplified and problems solved more efficiently and more cost effective. I really did not see the need to spend $150 million on the biometric registration system. However that is done.

2. STOPPING CORRUPTION in the electoral system: Doc, if you are not aware, I like to make it clear that the selection of candidates in Ghana’s electoral system has been very tainted with corruption for decades now and getting very systemic and endemic. Only you can stop it. In any constituency, one may have say 100-140 delegates who would be selecting a candidate within a particular party. Experience interviewing those who have run for Parliamentary office on their party platform indicated the normal practice involves heavy bribery to each of these delegates. The bribery range from pieces of cloth, refrigerators, gifts or cash sometimes from $100 to more than $1,000. This is illegal. Period! It happens in all constituencies in all regions. You should stop this by infiltrating the system with detectives and arresting and prosecuting some people as example. Both Candidates (givers) and Delegates (takes) are equally guilty and you should stop this before you depart from office for your retirement.

3. AUDITING CANDIDATE ACCOUNTS and ASSETS: At the time of every candidate registering for Office they must fill out a form including declaring their major assets to include land and houses, vehicles, cash, stocks and bonds. All Parliamentary and President Candidates must declare at the end of the elections all donations received, and winners who enter office must of course declare their assets with their taxes every year.

If you need any help to design these forms that can be computerized, please have your IT expert contact me. I managed a Real Estate Financial Services company for over ten years after I retired from engineering practice and I am very comfortable with these. I can help if needed.

I don’t want to make this long but you can contact me for further discussion as you want. I wish you all the best in your retirement and good health. I wanted to ship you some of that hair dye, but not sure if your wife will approve it. Give my best to the family.


From: Kwaku A. Danso, M.Eng., PhD
(President, Ghana Leadership Union, Inc(NGO) and Moderator, GLU Forum.)
Author: Leadership Concepts and the Role of Government in Africa: The Case of Ghana"
Publisher - Global Express Communications - http://www.globalghana.net/