[size=14pt]Nigerian Senate approves $585 million election budget[/size]
Tue Aug 10, 2010 2:54pm GMT 

(Reuters) - Nigeria's Senate on Tuesday approved an 87.72 billion naira budget for the country's electoral commission to organise an overhaul of voter lists and buy additional ballot boxes ahead of January polls.
Presidential and parliamentary polls are due to be held in Africa's most populous nation in less than six months but the electoral register is in dire need of being updated.

"The request for additional funds is to cover the cost of procuring electronic equipment and other ancillary expenses related to the conducting of a fresh voter registration exercise as well as the procurement of additional ballot boxes and payment of staff," the submission to parliament said.

The House of Representatives is also expected to approve the budget for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday, before it is sent to President Goodluck Jonathan for final approval.

Parliament last month passed a constitutional amendment bringing elections forward to January, leaving little time for reforms needed to avoid a repeat of chaotic 2007 polls.

An electoral roll riddled with fictitious names and omitting legitimate voters was one of the main problems at the 2007 polls, which were so marred by ballot stuffing and intimidation that observers deemed them not to have been credible.

INEC has said the spending plan was largely for the purchase of 120,000 electronic voter registration machines, including laptop computers, finger print scanners, cameras and printers to issue voter cards.

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE6790NI20100810?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

Oh My Gosh

The money keeps creeping up!

[size=14pt]Jega: Senators query N13bn profit margin for ICT vendors[/size]
Tuesday, 10 August 2010 01:12 Kehinde Akintola 

…warn civil servants against misleading INEC chairman

The Senate on Monday expressed dismay over the sum of N13 billion or 30 percent being profit margin to middlemen (vendors) to be engaged for the procurement of direct data capture machine (DCC) out of the N67.38 billion capital budget submitted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to it for consideration. INEC in its initial proposal sent to the Senate requested for the sum of N17.2 billion but on discovery of the error in the computation consulted with Budget Office with a view to correcting the changes.
. . .

http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13503:jega-senators-query-n13bn-profit-margin-for-ict-vendors&catid=85:national&Itemid=340

a whopping 30%? WOW !!!!

^^^

not really

we apply the same concept where i work , and that approach means very narrow margins for vendors

look at it like this -

the market price of cable is n100

10% for the vendor supplying
10% for delivery to site
10% for installation

and then 10% for tax - vat, witholding

nigeria being nigeria, most vendors who will pt for this are quite frankly small buinesses with marginal over head

the big contractors can come out at 100% of market price

the vendor will typically take a bank loan, and you know how those nasty interest rates are. the vendor will almost defeintely not get paid on time - being naija govt - the vendor will have to do some settling

yep that 30% is a big figure, but rest assureed, the cost will be to

heard on the radio, that jega's plan a is to single source all the equipment from a single manufacturer , but this is facing the following constraints

1) time- this needs to be done in the next 3 months
2) apparently the items involved are typically purchased form several manufacturers

single sourcing will make a lot of sense, not only because of cost, but because of maintenance. also if anything fails - there won't be finger pointing among the numerous vendors asthere is a single supplier

lets see

my real fear is that this story may still be sung again in 2015

oyb:

^^^
not really
we apply the same concept where i work , and that approach means very narrow margins for vendors
look at it like this -
the market price of cable is n100
10% for the vendor supplying
10% for delivery to site
10% for installation
and then 10% for tax - vat, witholding
nigeria being nigeria, most vendors who will pt for this are quite frankly small buinesses with marginal over head
the big contractors can come out at 100% of market price
the vendor will typically take a bank loan, and you know how those nasty interest rates are. the vendor will almost defeintely not get paid on time - being naija govt - the vendor will have to do some settling
yep that 30% is a big figure, but rest assureed, the cost will be to

I get this . . . but I was made to believe Jega wants to get around all that by going straight to the manufacturers for most of this.

oyb:

heard on the radio, that jega's plan a is to single source all the equipment from a single manufacturer , but this is facing the following constraints
1) time- this needs to be done in the next 3 months
2) apparently the items involved are typically purchased form several manufacturers

Well, he promised us he would get the equipments from the manufacturer and so would cut away the need for the vendor fees. That was the promise. I am now wondering why we still have to pay 30% of this to vendors, after all that.

oyb:

single sourcing will make a lot of sense, not only because of cost, but because of maintenance. also if anything fails - there won't be finger pointing among the numerous vendors asthere is a single supplier
lets see
my real fear is that this story may still be sung again in 2015

He can still single source through various manufacturers . . I don't understand why we need to purchase 120,000 laptops since we have yet to account for the last batch that was purchased for this same exercise some time ago. I even hear that there are INEC offices around the country where some of these machines are still stocked. . . INEC is still far from the 21st century.
I just do not get why we still need to be saddled with the very same he promised he would get around.

Kobojunkie:

I get this . . . but I was made to believe Jega wants to get around all that by going straight to the manufacturers for most of this. Well, he promised us he would get the equipments from the manufacturer and so would cut away the need for the vendor fees.

what i heard is that that is plan a - the multiple vendors are wetin call contingency plan

Kobojunkie:

I don't understand why we need to purchase 120,000 laptops since we have yet to account for the last batch that was purchased for this same exercise some time ago. I even hear that there are INEC offices around the country where some of these machines are still stocked. . .

whats that word we use on construction projects . . .consumables

Honestly, what I feel is we need to probably put the election off till maybe September of next year if we are really ready for complete change. I am not confident he can acheive all he plans to in the short period he has, and money is never solution. I hate that we end up with a rush job that fails when put under strain.

^^^^

in the end, i doubt if it will make any difference

as you pointed out on the other thread, all the fail safes and security measures in the world won't mean squat if the admins are corrupt

with naija do or die politics . . .

oyb:

^^^^

in the end, i doubt if it will make any difference
as you pointed out on the other thread, all the fail safes and security measures in the world won't mean squat if the admins are corrupt

with naija do or die politics . . .

True ooo!!! All the latest gadgets in the world will make no difference if we do not use them right.