PwC audit reveals GH₵5.3 billion under-declared revenue at ECG

A 2024 audit of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has uncovered a GH₵5.3 billion revenue discrepancy, raising serious concerns over financial misreporting and fund management at the state-owned power distributor.

The audit report revealed that ECG significantly under-declared its revenues to the regulator. While its accounts showed total collections of GH₵15.8 billion in 2024, it officially reported only GH₵10.4 billion—a GH₵5.3 billion gap.

Despite this under-declaration, the company failed to properly compensate power sector stakeholders in line with the cash waterfall mechanism. Out of the GH₵10.4 billion it declared, ECG paid only GH₵6.5 billion, leaving a shortfall of GH₵3.9 billion.

The report also flagged ECG’s revenue collection practices, revealing that a private vendor contracted to collect payments on its behalf received GH₵402 million in commissions—almost as much as the Volta River Authority (VRA), which was paid GH₵412 million, and significantly more than Bui Power, which received GH₵323 million. Notably, this vendor was compensated before the power-generating entities.

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Additionally, despite a key International Monetary Fund (IMF) requirement mandating a single revenue collection account, ECG maintained 99 bank accounts across 19 banks in 2024. However, 78% of its revenue collections were funnelled into a single account.