Few months ago, the entire students body shown praises to the Heads of General Assembly and it’s members for bringing corrupt executives to book. Most of us were of the view that, the Chief Justice has justified himself as a man of integrity.
They have raised the standards and we always pray for it to be maintained but I’m sorry to say, their negligence in the proper analysis and evaluation of the ELECTORAL commission budget has soiled their hard earn reputation.
How can you have supervised a 100 percent increment of the previous electoral commission budget? 2018 electoral commission budget was less than Gh¢20, 000, so what accounted for the 100% increment?
After the Election of the current electoral commission, several rumors have been circulating about his integrity and fairness, but since these are mere claims which cannot be substantiate with any evidence, we cannot crucify him on such rumors. Though there’s a saying that, in every rumor there’s is an iota of truth.
On Tuesday, 19 March 2019, General Assembly held an emergency meeting for the review and approval of the 2019 Electoral Commission’s Budget. A meeting which had less publicity to the students populace. The meeting was to be held at FBMS theater and it was to commenced at 6pm.
My little checks confirmed to me that, the venue for the meeting was change to AD block around 11am without notifying the Honorable members. This might have prevented some honorable members to partake in the meeting since they came to meet empty FBMS theatre.
This is what Chairman Issah Money said on one of the WhatsApp platforms and I quote
“How can u call for GA at 6pm then u change the venue from fmbs theater to AD without informing anyone……That secret GA took place almost at 11pm”
This has awakened me to question the motive behind the circumstances that led to the approval of this over bloated EC budget.
It also raised concerns about the “chop chop” in students leadership.
I must confess, some of our honourable members are just money driven members.
How can only 15 members out of 86 accredited members be present for such a delicate emergency meeting?
I now believe that saying that, how honourable members are not there for the interest of students but rather for their allowances and Jollof with Don Simon
We have a lot of non serious accredited members and it is about time we looked into how we selected members to represent us in decision making.
Now, let’s delve much into the gargantuan over bloated EC budget. The Electoral Commission led by Mr. Garry Opoku brought a budget of Gh¢37,248 to the General Assembly for approval. After the alleged secret organized General Assembly, the amount was increased to over Gh¢ 40,000.
This is what I call , “The madness in youthful governance”
Over Gh¢40,000 for an election, for an organization who can not even boast of a/an:
- Hostel
- Modernized bus
- Well furnished office
- Any infrastructural project.
An organization whose members can not even pay their fees
Mmmh, is this not sad, heartbreaking and worrisome?
In fact I am perplexed and shocked to my “bone marrow.”
“There is fire on the mountain and nobody seems to be on the run Oh, there is fire on the mountain top And no one is running!!!”
Below are excerpts of the over bloated budget:
- Gh¢8, 000 on a software for the election, is this not worrisome?
- Gh¢ 4,400 on refreshment, seriously?
- Spending Gh¢ 300 on printing and photocopy while SRC has procured a printer?
- Hiring about ten laptops @ Gh¢ 50 each for what?
- What’s the use of the school’s IT department computers?
- Printing lacoste for EC? Waoooow!!! Is the EC an organization? For Christ sake the EC is a committee, which is autonomous but also has limitations in carrying out it’s duties.
My little experience with elections is, you will be provided with electoral materials which includes reflectors , so my question is, what’s the usefulness of EC LACOSTE, for branding?
We are bring 15 electoral officials to campus , woow, Christ sake, our election is an electronic type ooh. Awww.
If we are to pick item by item, the more I speak on each Item the more you will get mad
Is time as students, we voice out on such “daylight robbery”.
As a matter of urgency, I call on the
- Dean of students Affairs
- SRC President
- Heads of General Assembly
- Members of GA
- All students activists, to speak against this daylight robbery. If we keep mute and allow this money to be released to the ELECTORAL COMMISSION, posterity will judge us all.
