The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is currently in process of putting together its 2023 budget and last week’s statutory meeting saw government and Opposition Commissioners tussling over the inclusion of an allocation for the acquisition of biometric equipment.
Opposition-nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander said that the Commissioners on the government side insisted that GECOM should not budget for a scanner that would allow the IT division to develop a system for the digital capture of fingerprints. He noted that this matter has been on GECOM’s agenda for over a decade and the scanner was even included in the 2021 budget but was not acquired.
“They claim that such an acquisition must await the frequently postponed discussion on biometrics. It should be noted that what is proposed is merely a technological upgrade of the matter of capture of fingerprints and has no impact on anything else biometric. There is a clear attempt to stymie any progress that will enhance and make the systems at GECOM transparent. In this instance even initiatives of the PPP-friendly administration are being jettisoned,” Alexander said.
