—- Following ‘Unlawful’ Treatment of Its Company That Won NEC Biometric Voter Registration Bid; the NEC Could Face Legal Actions
IPNEWS: There are unconfirmed reports that the Federal Republic of Nigeria could get angry with Liberia following the treatment of its company, INITS Limited.
INITS Limited, along with Ekemp International and Palm Insurance jointly submitted a bid that was accepted by the National Elections Commission (NEC) to carry out the 2023 Voters Registration biometric voter card process.
After the public opening on July 29, 2022, of the six bidders, a bid evaluation panel comprising five NEC staff was constituted. The panel worked for three weeks and on August 26, 2022, submitted its report to the NEC Procurement Committee, which eventually selected Ekemp International, INITS Limited, and Palm Insurance because in their joint venture bid, they were the “most responsive bidder in the international competitive bidding for the IFB No. NEC/VRPLE/ICB/001/2002.”
The companies chosen are a combination of three companies, which have poured their resources together to win the bid. One of the three combined entities—Palm Insurance—is a Liberian-owned insurance company. The other two, Ekemp is a Chinese-own and INITS is Nigerian based.
After the NEC had exhausted its internal processes, it wrote the Public Procurement and Concession Commission (PPCC) asking for a “no objection” for it to grant Ekemp/INITS/Palm Joint Venture the go ahead to do the biometric process.
But the PPCC, which now stands accused by some of doing the dirty works of some of the companies that failed and didn’t meet the requirements as were spelled out in the bid, rejected the NEC’s request. Instead, the PPCC has created more bottlenecks, which might likely lead to hampering of the 2023 election timeline for the December 15, 2022 start of voters’ registration.
According to a September 20th, 2022 communication, the PPCC demanded that among other things, its wants to see a video-recorded demonstration before it can give its approval for the Elections body to continue with its process.
Unimpeachable sources within NEC and PPCC have confided in this newspaper that the NEC may have to redo the reopening of all bids for all the six bidders to come back and re-demonstrate.
Our reliable sources said the NEC has asked the PPCC to provide clarity on the requested scope of the re-demonstration and re-evaluation, since the PPCC did not address the questions raised by the NEC in its September 13, 2022, communication to the PPCC. This according to the NEC will enhance transparency, fairness, and accountability in the procurement process.
According to unconfirmed report, this is not going to go down well with “our big brothers in the sub-region, Nigeria. Its company is among the three companies that poured their resources together to win the bid. Their Joint Venture is the best and most qualified to carry out the process for which they were selected,” one of our sources said.
While critics of the NEC have been pointing fingers at that body for “giving biometric process to a Chinese company”, those critics are indirectly denigrating the other two companies—the Liberian-owned and INITS Limited.
“It is also surmised that denigrating a qualified and professional Nigerian company as is being done by the PPCC could claim the interest of the Nigerian Embassy near Monrovia. It must be noted that Nigerians lost their lives in Liberia to keep the peace in a senseless civil war. Besides, the Nigerian company (INITS) recommended by the National Elections Commission has the expertise in biometric solutions thus proving records of delivering on their commitments,” an official of the NEC, who asked for anonymity told this newspaper.
“With that being said, why a Nigerian company should not be given the opportunity to bid for contracts in an international bidding process? Nigerians could be concerned about the short-sightedness, in these unfounded and unfortunate denigrations, of the Nigerian-Liberian bond, which runs very deep, more than any other relationship in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
Just as this might upset Nigeria, there are reports from diplomatic sources that the Chinese Embassy near Monrovia is angry that its country’s name is being mischaracterized, too.
It is reported that because of this alleged mischaracterization of the People’s Republic of China because of Ekemp International, no representative from the Chinese Embassy nor its Ambassador attended a recent high-level meeting with the Board of Commissioners of the NEC.
In that meeting, which was attended by the UN and members of the international community, the Chairperson and Members of the Board of Commissioners assured that the PPCC directive to reevaluate and re-demonstrate the presentations made by the bidders would be conducted.
WHAT DID WE FIND OUT ABOUT THE COMPANY CHOSEN BY NEC?
The bidder selected by the NEC after the evaluation is the joint venture led by EKEMP, with two other companies – INITS Limited and Palm Insurance. Digging deeper, we were able to discover that EKEMP and INITS have both been conducting elections for many years across Africa and outside Africa. Palm Insurance is a local company and partner here in Liberia to provide on-the-ground, hands-on local support and project management.
EKEMP and INITS Limited, evidently, are well-established companies when it comes to election technology. The EKEMP JV included in their profile information on the biometric projects they have done for elections in different countries in Africa, including Nigeria, Namibia, Swaziland, Kenya, and Guinea Bissau. Nigeria is the biggest across Africa – over 90 million voters at the last count of the NEC in Nigeria. The EKEMP JV has provided latest custom made hardware, just like we need in Liberia, and Software for Biometric Registration, the printing of cards, and authentication of voters on election day – all of what Liberia needs as a country.
EKEMP is an original equipment manufacturer, meaning they manufacture things like tablets, biometric terminals, access control, and other hardware. From their website, they focus on Digital Biometric Security Identification, with fingerprint, iris (eyes), and face recognition. EKEMP is a global OEM/ODM (Original Equipment Manufacturer/Original Device Manufacturer), it manufactures biometric equipment and devices for companies in USA, CANADA, EUROPE and ASIA. We have researched and found out that EKEMP International Limited features the FBI and FCC-certified product list.
