Election Petition: KPMG meets court, parties to discuss modalities

The international accounting firm, KPMG, which has been appointed by the Supreme Court to conduct an audit of pink sheets, will meet the parties in the election petition and the Supreme Court Registry Tuesday to discuss the modalities for the exercise.

Already, KPMG has officially communicated to the Supreme Court its decision to accept the request by the court to conduct the auditing of the pink sheets.

Mr Godwin Adawudu and Ms Gloria Akufo, members of the legal teams of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the petitioners, respectively, who confirmed this to the Daily Graphic Monday, said two representatives from each of the parties in the suit would be appointed to observe the exercise.

The Supreme Court, in consultation with the parties in the petition, on Friday, May 10 appointed KPMG to conduct an audit of the pink sheets presented as exhibits by the petitioners.

As part of the terms of reference of KPMG, the court directed that the audit be based on the court’s exhibits in the custody of the registrar.

The auditing should also be carried out in accordance with the category of malpractices alleged by the petitioners, as contained in paragraphs 44 to 67 of the affidavit deposed to by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the second petitioner, and dated April 7, 2013.

The exercise is to take into account the polling stations involved, their names, code numbers and exhibit numbers, if any.

The decision to conduct an audit of the pink sheets came from a ruling on an application for the count at the instance of Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, counsel for the NDC.

There is no indication as to when the exercise will commence, but once the order has been given, the exercise will start, provided the necessary paper work is completed on time.

When the Daily Graphic visited the premises of KPMG yesterday to seek information, a source said the firm’s senior partner, together with other staff, was in a marathon meeting with its international partners from South Africa.

It did not say whether the visit of the partners to the country was in connection with the audit.

Though KPMG has not made public how much it will charge for the exercise, some industry analysts suggest the charge will be about $100,000.

The petitioners have alleged that the December 7 and 8, 2012 presidential election was fraught with malpractices of over-voting, non-signing of pink sheets by presiding officers or their assistants, voting without biometric verification and duplicated serial numbers of pink sheets.

However, the respondents, President John Dramani Mahama, the Electoral Commission (EC) and the NDC have denied that any such irregularities occurred during the election.
 
Source: Daily Graphic