External auditing of voters’ register, in line with global practices – Prof Gatsi

Dr John Gartchie Gatsi, a professor of Finance, says external auditing of the voters' register after registration of new voters is a procedure in line with global best practices.He said external audit forms a key part of rebuilding electoral integrity using cross-verification methods in the international Elections Management space.Speaking at the maiden edition of the Financial Forum public lecture series held on the theme, 'Ghana's Pain Point', he said, 'examples are Kenya, conducted by KPMG in 2017; Mexico, Ernst and Young in 2006 and 2012; Zimbabwe, PWC in 2018; and in Tunisia by UNDP in 2011 which all led to the finding of data integrity issues.'I, therefore, encourage the Electoral Commission and Political Parties to prioritise the integrity and credibility of the Voters Register by conducting the audit so that the time factor is not used to blackmail the process,' saidProf Gatsi, also the Dean of the School of Business, University of Cape Coast (UCC), advised the EC to consider third-party va lidation or external audit as a priority especially when it is partly funded by the international community.'A call for audit does not take away the independence of the EC. The argument that, bringing an independent IT Audit firm to conduct an audit for the EC means the independence of the EC is violated is just a defense mechanism which is not supported by law,' he said.At the end of the voters' register exhibition exercise from July 15 to July 24, this year, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) called for a forensic audit of the register.The call comes after the detection of irregularities and some errors which the EC said had mostly been resolved through internal audit, hence no need for forensic audit.Despite the NDC embarking on demonstration on September 17 to demand for the forensic audit, the EC is yet to consider the request.Source: Ghana News Agency