According to the energy minister, a container of electrical equipments worth $500,000 was left unclaimed at the port, presumably because ECG was unable or unwilling to clear it.
As a result, the equipments were auctioned off for a mere ₵100,000 (approximately $7,000) before being resold back to ECG for $300,000.
The sheer scale of the financial loss is staggering, but even more alarming are the unanswered questions surrounding this transaction.
Why Could ECG Not Clear the Container?
Was it due to a lack of funds, bureaucratic inefficiency, or something more sinister?
If ECG lacked the financial capacity to pay port charges, why did it import these items? What was the exact amount?
Could a public institution, critical to Ghana’s infrastructure, genuinely be unable to afford import duties on equipments vital to its operations?
Or was this a deliberate abandonment, allowing insiders to manipulate the system for personal gain?
Who Set the Auction Price?
If ECG was unable to pay the import charges, then logic dictates that the auction price should have at least covered the outstanding fees. Yet, the equipment was sold for a fraction of its true value.
How was the ₵100,000 auction price determined?
Who conducted the valuation?
Why was there no safeguard in place to prevent gross underpricing?
Common sense dictates that such assets should be sold at prices that reflect their actual worth or, at the very least, the debt owed to the port authorities.
That this did not happen suggests either gross incompetence or deliberate orchestration.
Who Won the Auction?
Who purchased the equipment at this giveaway price, and under what circumstances?
Was the auction widely advertised, or was it a quiet, backdoor transaction designed to benefit a select few?
The fact that the same equipment found its way back into ECG’s procurement pipeline, now valued at 40 times the auction price, suggests collusion at multiple levels.
Did an individual or company deliberately acquire the container knowing they could later resell it to ECG at a higher price?
Who approved the repurchase?
How could funds be available for the repurchase but not for the port charges?
No Arrests, No Accountability—A Systemic Problem?
Given the staggering financial loss involved, one would expect swift action—interdictions, suspensions, arrests.
But so far, no one has been held accountable.
Instead, the usual silence.
This raises a more troubling possibility: Is this a one-off scandal, or is this part of a systemic scheme to siphon public funds under the guise of procurement inefficiencies?
This is not the first time ECG has been accused of financial mismanagement. Over the years, its books have been plagued with questionable transactions, inflated contracts, and operational inefficiencies.
This latest scandal fits a familiar pattern: strategic neglect, engineered auctions, and eventual repurchase at a premium, funded by taxpayers.
The Bigger Picture
This incident is not merely about an abandoned shipment; it is about how public institutions bleed money through opaque transactions and manufactured inefficiencies.
It is about how we are consistently shortchanged by a system that prioritizes private gain over public service.
If this situation is not addressed with urgency, it entrenches the culture that public assets can be deliberately mishandled, sold off at a discount, and then repurchased at exorbitant rates, without consequence.
What Must Be Done?
- Full Disclosure of Port Charges: ECG must explain exactly why it could not clear the container. If financial, what was the owed amount?
- Audit the Auction Process: Who authorized the sale? Were there multiple bidders, or was it a single-party transaction? Why was there no reservation price equal to the port charges?
- Identify the Beneficiary: Who purchased the equipment at auction and later resold it to ECG? Was this entity connected to ECG officials?
- Investigate Procurement Approvals: Who approved the $300,000 repurchase, and was due diligence conducted?
- Prosecute Where Necessary: If evidence of fraud, collusion, or insider trading exists, arrests must follow.
Conclusion
This is a clear case of financial malpractice, whether by negligence or by design (accident according to plan).
The silence from ECG is too loud.
Look, until accountability is demanded and enforced, scandals like these will continue, costing the public millions and reinforcing a culture where corruption thrives unchecked.
This is not just about ECG. This is about whether we are willing to confront financial recklessness within our institutions or allow it to persist as just another headline scandal that fades with time.
We may not be able to find out who said tweaaaaa. We may never know who said “daughter of murderer.” We may be unable to find the missing TOR condensate.
But we should know who bought electrical goods worth $500k for $7k, only to quickly resell it to ECG for a cool $300k.
Long live ORAL, OPAL, OSOSO & OMAMPAM.
Da Yie!
