"The chair stands by her statement that the contract for biometric registration has not been given out to any company. As to why, the company has built a preregistration software. The company is in the best position to tell why. The request is still before the PPCC awaiting approval."
-Prince Dunbar, Communication Officer, National Elections Commission
Monrovia - Contrary to claims by the chair of the National Elections Commission Madam Davidetta Brown-Lansannah that the Commission has not awarded the US$12 million contract for the supply of biometric materials and equipment for the 2023 elections, FrontPageAfrica has learned that the controversial Chinese company, Ekemp, said to be the favorites of the NEC chair, has already developed a pre-registration app in anticipation of the elections next October, adding more intrigue to the damning saga surrounding the bidding for the Biometric Vote Registration process.
Six companies, including Network Solutions, Ekemp Int'l, Election Services Inc., HID Global and Liberian Partner, Waymark Infotech and Local Liberian Partner and Laxton competed for the contract. However, only three companies were qualified for the final round.
But Joint Venture of Ekemp International Limited, INITS Limited, and Palm Insurance Inc., and the Joint Venture of Professional Services Inc. and HID Global were considered by NEC to be "most responsive to the pre-financing requirement which was a major requirement for evaluation."
Counselor Browne-Lasannah's preferential treatment and handpicking of Ekemp/Palm Insurance over the others on the basis of its perceived pre-financing capacity were noticed by the Senate Committee on Autonomous Commissions and Agencies, in its recent report endorsing the decision taken by the Public Procurement and Concession Commission (PPCC) to reject the company.
A review of the video of the company's re-demonstration exercise displayed the malfunctioning of its equipment used to print the biometric voter ID on the spot as required. The company also flopped to print a voter registration card in the time allotted by the NEC, according to the PPCC.
Despite these noticeable failures, Cllr. Browne-Lasannah still sees Ekemp/Palm Insurance as the "darling boy" to print materials for the 2023 elections in Liberia.
Last week, the NEC Chairperson justified that despite the actions taken by the PPCC and the Committee, no contract has been awarded Ekemp/Palm Insurance.
According to her, the comparative audited income statements of each of the bidders show that only Ekemp/INITS/Palm and Laxton have implemented a project worth this amount over the last two years.
The total cost of the project is US$12M.
She said Laxton failed to provide audited financial statements for the immediate past year (2021), which is a requirement in the standard bidding documents. Laxton only provided statements for the fiscal years 2020 and 2019 and did not provide audited financial statements.
Moreover, Laxton expressed a condition regarding its ability to pre-finance.
"The NEC did not and has not awarded any contract to the recommended bidder or to any other bidders in this matter. Moreover, the original report shows that only Ekemp/Inits/Palm and ESI made it to the final stage of the evaluation."
App developed
Despite these claims of not awarding a contract to Ekemp/Palm, FrontPage has gathered that the company has already developed a pre-registration app for the NEC.
"This page for Liberia NEC voter pre-registration, once you open this page means you agree to collect and submit your basic information for voting and promise the authenticity of it.
All items with * is mandatory", the app details stated.
It carries the Voter ID, Sur Name, Given Name, Gender, Sex, Date of Birth, as well as Phone no, Home Address, County, Magisterial Area, and Registration Center as features.
The development of the app comes barely few days after Counselor Lasannah reportedly travelled to Nigeria for nearly two weeks.
Forcing their way through?
In September this year, Ekemp/Palm Insurance listed, on its website, the National Elections Commission as one of its partners, though there was no official contract signed with the entity.
Following FrontPage Africa's publications on the matter, Ekemp/Palm clandestinely took down the logo of the NEC prior to the appearance of Counselor Brown Lasannah before the Plenary of the Liberian Senate.
The company was accused of "forcing their way through".
"I heard about that during the presentation of the NEC and the PPCC before the Plenary that attitude of Ekemp/Palm was questioned. I did not now it was FrontPage that disclosed that. Fortunately, they (Ekemp/Palm) took it down before they appear before the Plenary. Of course, that was wrong. They had not been considered. I think they were trying to force their position into acceptance," the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Autonomous Agencies and Commissions Senator Henrique Tokpa stated in an exclusive interview with FrontPage Africa.
He observed that the company also failed to also adhere to all processes in keeping with the PPCC laws prior to its action taken to insert the NEC logo as partners on its website.
It was also established by the Senate Committee on Autonomous Agencies and Commissions that the NEC has awarded the contract for the biometric voter registration to the Joint Venture of Ekemp International Limited, INITS Limited, and Palm Insurance Inc.
Sidelining Global?
Ekemp/Palm Insurance which was considered as the "most responsive bidder" by the NEC has an equity and liabilities of the financing partner (Palm Insurance) in the Joint Venture is little over US$2.8M.
Ekemp International's Annual revenue position as of December 2021 was US$95,527,850.71 Hong Kong Dollars (HKD), which is equivalent to US$12,169,388.36 as stated in the communication from NEC to the PPCC, dated September 13, 2022.
The next company, which was considered "next responsive" to the pre-financing requirement is the American company HID Global.
HID Global has US$6.1B as a revenue position for the year 2021 and it previously mentioned Ekemp International as its technical partner in its Joint Venture agreement submitted to NEC.
The rationale behind "pre-financing" being upheld as a pre-requisite for the awarding of contracts by the NEC to companies during electioneering periods and the decision taken to endorse Ekemp/Palm Insurance over HID Global remain questionable due to the huge financial gap between the two companies.
The NEC was requested by both the PPCC and the Senate Committee on Autonomous Agencies and Commissions to commence a "new process" and select the "next responsive bidder" for the awarding of the contract for the printing of the biometric voter registration card and other materials in keeping with its report submitted to the two bodies that only the two companies were the "most responsive."
But it has been nearly a month now since the commission failed to comply with the mandate given; making it to appear that Ekemp/Palm Insurance has already been awarded the contract.
Standing by statement
The Communication Officer of the NEC Prince Dunbar maintained that the commission stands by its previous statement that no contract has been awarded Ekemp/Palm Insurance.
"The chair stands by her statement that the contract for biometric registration has not been given out to any company. As to why, the company has built a preregistration software. The company is in the best position to tell why. The request is still before the PPCC awaiting approval," he told FrontPage on Tuesday in Monrovia.
Awarding contracts without procurement
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For some time now, post-conflict Liberia continues to be faced with the issue of some authorities at various government ministries and agencies awarding lucrative contracts to companies without competitive bidding processes.
In some instances, these companies, which they have either established clandestinely or have linked to, are made to win bids even though they are not qualified over others who bided for contracts.
These companies are even selected prior to the advertising of bid rounds in various newspapers.
These advertisements are done just to honor PPCC regulations. However, companies are most often selected or favored by higher-ups prior to the sending and opening of bids.
Most companies continue to loss thousands of United States dollars to authorities of these government ministries and agencies as non-refundable bid fees.
Handsome kickbacks are given as rewards to some of these public officials who front for companies to win lucrative contract worth millions of United States dollars, caring less for the worth of taxpayers' and donors' monies.
As a result of this, most of these companies performed a poor, ineffective or inefficient manner, with no one having the guts to hold them accountable.
Voter registration could delay.
The delay by the NEC to finalize the awarding of the biometric contract to the "next responsive bidder" as mandated by the PPCC and the Senate Committee on Autonomous Agencies and Commissions could delay the start of the voter registration exercise for the 2023 general and presidential elections.
The commission has set from December 15, 2022, to March 24, 2023, for the biometric voter registration exercise.
Already, citizens are rejecting the biometric voter registration exercise due to the lack of adequate awareness, questionable procurement processes, among others.
