Vodafone Ghana has reacted to attempted bribery allegations made by rapper Kwaw Kese at the finals of Vodafone Icons: Street Edition.
Kwaw Kese, who nearly caused an anticlimax of the show when he stormed the stage, alleged that a producer from Vodafone Icons called him to pay GHC10,000 in order for Budda, his brother, to win.
A statement signed by Carmen Bruce-Annan, Head, Brand & Corporate Communications for Vodafone Ghana, has denied the allegations, maintaining that the ultimate winner of the competition is based solely on votes:
Below is the full statement
Our attention has been drawn to allegations in the media that Vodafone was biased in selecting the eventual winner for the Vodafone ICONS competition.
Vodafone is a high integrity organisation that has zero-tolerance towards bribery and corruption. This is non-negotiable and under no circumstance will we compromise on this by demanding money from any contestant or their families.
Vodafone ICONS results; including the eventual winner, are driven 100% through fans’ votes, which are sent by SMS and not public cheering. The public had the option of keeping a contestant in the competition by texting YES and candidate’s name or voting out a contestant by texting NO and candidate’s name to designated short codes.
In order to ensure integrity and transparency, we appointed Mtech Communications and AtchikRealtime to independently manage the voting process and KPMG to independently review and validate the votes received.
The collated votes from both Mtech Communications and AtchikRealtime were forwarded to KPMG for review. The review involved collating the relevant votes based on the voting criteria, applying weights to the votes (80% on “YES” votes and 20% on “NO” votes, and ranking the net votes).
The final validated votes received from KPMG formed the basis for determining candidate’s eviction or otherwise. We want to reassure ICONS fans and the general public that we remain, as always an organisation of high integrity.