Firms battle for tender to audit voters’ register

About a dozen companies, including the Big Four audit firms, have bid to inspect the voters register in line with the new polls law.

KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and Ernst & Young are racing to audit the voters register at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

Others who participated in the bids opened on Monday include PKF, Lamtech, and Compton.

The Elections Laws (Amendment) Act, 2016, which took effect on October 4, requires IEBC to within 30 days procure “a professional reputable firm” to conduct an audit of the register of voters.

The winning firm is expected to begin work on November 4 and take 21 days to verify the accuracy of the register; recommend mechanisms of enhancing the accuracy and update of the register.

There were 15.85 million listed voters as at June 2016, according to IEBC, an increase from the 14.38 million voters during the 2013 General Election. The growth is linked to continuous voter registration.

The next presidential and parliamentary polls are due in August 2017, but politicians have already started wooing supporters. Violence erupted after the 2007 vote and the opposition disputed the outcome in 2013.

Eligible firms are those with at least five years’ experience in auditing registers of voters or similar work with more than 10 million records, and able to demonstrate political neutrality of the firm as well as its directors.

Consultancy firms that meet the set criteria shall be invited to submit their proposals for evaluation and award.

The electoral body maintains poll books (laptops with a full voter register and a fingerprint-reading device), lists printed for individual polling stations; the list of people whose biometric data had not been captured, and finally, the entries listed in the ‘green books’ – the manual records of entries made during voter registration.