The Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) has found Madam Davidetta Browne Lansanah, chairperson of the National Elections Commission (NEC) liable for corruption and conflict of interest in the lease of 20 Thermometers for a huge sum of US$182,320.
LACC, in its year-end press briefing said Madam Lansanah confessed during investigation that David T. Browne, vice president for operations of Tuma Enterprise Inc. is her biological brother.
Tuma Enterprise is the company to which the contract for the delivery of the facial recognition materials was awarded and its President, Arnold Badio, is a half brother to Davidetta Browne Lansanah.
Cllr. Edward Kla Martin, Executive chairman of the Liberia Anti-Corruption said Joseph Kerkulah, director of procurement is also held liable for colluding with the NEC boss to misappropriate/embezzle public funds.
The intended use of the equipment was to detect the temperatures of voters during Nov. 16 by-elections in Nimba, Bong, Grand Gedeh, and Bomi Counties.
The equipment being rented by NEC is widely used at entrances to public facilities to monitor access and attendance for safe and efficient access control of personnel.
A 20-inch size of the technology is US$1,120.00 on Amazon.com but NEC opted not to procure its own, instead spent US$9,166 to rent a single facial recognition system from the Tuman Enterprise. That means NEC paid Tuma Enterprise a total of US$183,320 for 20 units of the equipment.
Also, if the NEC had purchased the equipment, it would have saved a whopping US$153,320, while owning the equipment outrightly, instead of renting it.
At NEC, sources there have revealed that, although the general intended purpose of the equipment remains good, its price tag is alarming, and could have been less if an open, competitive bidding process had taken place.
The National Elections Commission first denied the information after it was published by the daily Observer Newspaper online early in November
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