Energy Minister John Jinapor orders probe into procurement breaches at ECG

The Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Abdulai Jinapor, has set up a committee to investigate procurement activities undertaken by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) during the Akufo-Addo administration, citing financial mismanagement and irregularities.

Jinapor accused ECG of engaging in “frivolous procurements” that have led to significant financial losses. He revealed that approximately 3,000 ECG containers are currently stuck at the ports, incurring demurrage costs estimated at GHS 1.5 billion.

“It’s all because they are engaged in what I call very frivolous procurements. Now, they have about 3,000 containers stuck at the ports, generating demurrage of about GHS 1.5 billion, which is very unacceptable. Some of the things they’ve procured will last them ten years, some will even expire in five years,” the minister stated in an interview on TV3.

To address these concerns, he confirmed the establishment of a committee to investigate ECG’s procurement processes and the financial burden caused by the stranded containers.

“So we’ve commissioned a committee to investigate ECG’s procurements and the cost of these containers stuck at the ports. The committee is doing a very good job,” Jinapor added.

According to the minister, preliminary findings indicate that former ECG managers failed to adhere to proper procurement processes and guidelines, resulting in wasteful expenditures.

“So far, the preliminary reports I have gotten indicate that there’s massive rot at ECG,” he said.

Beyond this investigation, Jinapor announced plans for a broader audit of the energy sector, which will include financial, human resource, and technical reviews.

“What the PwC has done is a financial audit. We want to do a human resource audit, a deeper audit of the entire energy sector, which will then give us a clear picture of the inefficiencies so that we can tailor that in terms of our policy objective and policy directive to address this,” he explained.

With these initiatives, the Ministry aims to uncover inefficiencies and implement strategic policies to enhance the energy sector’s performance.