The Electoral Commission will be finalising a list of service providers for the 2017 General Election. This is to avoid unapproved commitments by election officers and managers.
Commissioner Patilias Gamato says a pre-qualification tender was conducted in August and the list of service providers should be finalised soon so that the commissioner knows who they are dealing with.
“People have applied and we’ll finalise that and have that ready so come next election next year, we know exactly which people we are dealing with,” said Gamato.
The Electoral Commissioner has been flooded with claims of outstanding bills owed to service providers, some dating as far back as the last two general elections.
Many of those claims however, did not come with a formal approval correspondence from Electoral Commission. This has resulted in countless legal battles.
“I’ve refused to sign some of them and they’ve taken us to court and I’ve told them you produce the evidence of formal approval given by the commissioner,” stated Gamato.
“I think 3 or 4 cases we have won, the court dismissed those bills from people who provided service. So at least those are some good signs and indications.”
Meanwhile, Gamato says the threshold for payments to service providers by the Commission is K500,000.
Anything higher than the specified amount will go through the Central Supply & Tender’s Board and to the Minister responsible, for approval.