SACK ECG CURRENT MANAGEMENT - ACEP 

The head of  Policy Lead, Petroleum and Conventional for Africa Center for Energy Policy (ACEP) Mr Kodzo Yaotse has recommended the immediate relief of the jobs of current ECG management as ECG "galamsey" on Ghana's Budget reaches a crescendo. 

Addressing the press on Thursday 19th September 2024, Mr Kodzo Yaotse stated that the political lethargy to enable ECG to deliver value to the people of Ghana continues to hurt Ghana's budget.

He added that the energy Sector Recovery Program (ESRP) estimates that realised power sector shortfalls between 2019 and 2023 were about $8.25 billion dollars which is a sheer waste of public resources.

Mr Yaotse outlined some  challenges affecting the company.he said ECG does not collect enough revenue to account for power sales.

He revealed that between 2017 and 2022, ECG's losses increased from about GHS 295million to about GHS 9.7 billion.

ACEP indicates that recent reports published by the  Public Utilities Regulatory Commission shows that under recoveries between August 2023 and July 2024 amounted to about GHS 13.6 billion. 

He further explains that ECG fails to account for the limited revenue it collects properly. 

According to him, ECG operated sixty-one accounts through sixteen banks and would not make details of those accounts visible to auditors. 

he noted that ECG's  poor revenue performance has been attributable to managerial, financial and technical inefficiencies.

ACEP charged PURC to assume it's regulatory  functions over ECG by implementing aggressive measures to have visibility over how much revenue is collected and spent on. 

PURC should also audit the Hubtel contract and verify all the payments made to the company to assure value for money for the country and clarify discrepancies in cash values.

He added that replacement of ECG management will bring effectiveness and transparency that would salvage the company and its fiscal burden on the state.

Report by :  PKB