A thorough audit in 2024 by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) revealed a GH¢5.3 billion revenue gap for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG). The report indicates that ECG continued to underestimate its revenues to the regulator, declaring only GH¢10.4 billion to the regulator, despite actually collecting GH¢15.8 billion.
Despite ECG significantly underreporting its revenues, the company did not adequately compensate value chain players based on its declarations and the cash waterfall mechanism, as highlighted in the report. It stated that out of the declared GH¢10.4 billion, ECG only paid GH¢6.5 billion, resulting in a variance of GH¢3.9 billion.
Additionally, the report revealed that a vendor contracted by ECG to collect revenues on its behalf received an impressive GH¢402 million in commissions—almost as much as the Volta River Authority (VRA), which was paid GH¢412 million, and considerably more than Bui Power, which received GH¢323 million. Notably, this vendor was compensated before the entities responsible for power generation.
According to the report, despite the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditions mandating a single collection account, ECG maintained 99 bank accounts across 19 banks in 2024. This requirement is a key conditionality of the IMF programme. However, 78% of its revenue collections were funnelled into a single account.
Source: MyJoyOnline.com
