General News of Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2024-03-13ECG owes $1.5 billion – John Jinapor alleges
John Jinapor, Ranking Member of the Energy Committee in Parliament
Ghanaian
John Jinapor, the Ranking Member of the Energy Committee of Parliament, has disclosed that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is burdened with a staggering debt of $1.5 billion.
Mr. Jinapor attributes this substantial debt primarily to ECG's failure to fulfill financial obligations to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and its inability to settle bills for purchased electricity completely.
Expressing
Read full articlecriticism, Mr. Jinapor condemns what he perceives as wasteful spending by ECG on items such as cables, malfunctioning meters, and what he deems unnecessary contracts.
Referring to a report from the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Mr. Jinapor points out instances of alleged fund mismanagement by ECG, claiming that significant sums were diverted away from debt repayment towards other expenditures.
During a media interview, Mr. Jinapor called upon ECG to provide transparent explanations for the recent power outages experienced by Ghanaians.
“ECG owes $1.5 billion, when they take the money from Ghanaians, they fail to pay the IPPs and use the funds to do whatever they want with it and they fail to pay the full price of the power they purchase and PURC has brought a report that when ECG comes in possession of a substantial amount of money they refuse to pay the debt they owe, they spend the money recklessly, and this is an official report from the PURC,” he said.