A single account has been set up for the Electricity Company of Ghana’s revenue collecting operations, according to Finance Minister Mohammed Amin Adam.
Edward Abambire Bawa, a member of the Parliamentary Mines and Energy Committee, criticized the ECG in March for maintaining more than 30 accounts for its revenue collecting operations, calling it indisciplined and reckless.
However, Dr. Amin Adam stated during a press conference held in conjunction with the IMF World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, DC, that the Ministry wishes to guarantee that ECG no longer employs several accounts for its activities.
According to the Finance Minister, this will guarantee that tracking down the money that the ECG has collected won’t be a difficult undertaking.
Additionally, we set up a single account for collecting. As a result, ECG will not be able to make money from the numerous accounts they manage. There will be just one collection account for everything. Thus, tracking is made simpler for all of us,” Dr. Amin Adam stated.
This comes after the ECG was fined GH˖36,000 by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) for neglecting to report to the Commission the existence of every bank and investment account it currently manages.
This came after the regulatory authority declared in March that ECG had behaved irresponsibly by using a portion of the funds accumulated under the Cash Waterfall Mechanism to buy fuel for electricity generation.
It is believed that the judgment, which rendered the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) and the Volta River Authority (VRA) cashless under the mechanism from November 2023 to January 2024, will have a detrimental effect on the two organizations’ ability to operate.
In light of this, the PURC had sent three requests with deadlines of March 25, March 27, and April 2, 2024, to the ECG.
The sought information pertains to the Cash Waterfall Mechanism (CWM) tariff revenue allocation, the submission of operational matter information, the release of regulatory audit data, and other regulatory audit data.
On Monday, April 15, the PURC, however, reported in a letter to the ECG that it had discovered that the “details of ECG’s bank accounts submitted were incomplete, contrary to the Order.” Additionally, it failed to submit data pertaining to operational issues.
“In compliance with Regulation 45 of LI 2413, the Commission hereby imposes an initial regulatory charge on ECG in the amount of Thirty-six Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH₵36,000),”
According to the letter, “ECG shall pay the Commission the initial regulatory charge of GH₵36,000 on or before April 22, 2024.”
Regarding the deadline for compliance, the PURC stated that “ECG shall pay an additional regulatory charge of 3,000 penalty units, calculated daily until the date of compliance,” following the payment, “for every working day that the requested details remain outstanding.”
Dr. Amin Adam also disclosed that the Cash Waterfall Mechanism is being audited by the government.
He claims that by resolving the issues with the cash waterfall method, income collections will become more transparent and accountable and that its intended use will be guaranteed.
“We have begun the auditing process, and we must also make the audit’s conclusions public. We’ve already completed one audit, and the results are available online.
“We intend to persist in this endeavor to establish transparency and accountability, guaranteeing that all proceeds intended for the cash waterfall are utilized for the intended purpose,” Dr. Amin continued.
