The Executive Director of the Chamber for Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC), Duncan Amoah, has asserted that government cannot use grammar to purge the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) from the debts accrued and poor management of the power sector.
He said no one can massage the power sector with a lot of grammar because the numbers will not bear them out.
Duncan Amoah made the assertion when he appeared on The Key Points yesterday, [Saturday, March 30].
He said, “The truth of the matter is this, we can massage the power sector all we want with grammar but the numbers would still expose you. As we speak the IPPs (Independent Power Producers) are owed in excess of 1.5 billion [US dollars]. I am not sure any business anywhere will be okay enough to continue taking bank loans to be able to continue supplying you with power.”
Meanwhile, a former deputy minister for energy and MP for the Yapei-Kusawgu constituency, John Abdulai Jinapor, had earlier alleged that government needs about 50 million US dollars to purchase fuel. He maintained that the current erratic power supply (known as dumsor) is a financial problem.
Furthermore, Mr. Amoah pointed out that the ECG is unable to account for some over 100 megawatts of power Ghana sold to neighbouring countries like Benin and Togo. This, according to him, accounts for the revenue shortfalls the power distributor faces.
“Again, we are also not accounting for what we collect from the people,” said Duncan Amoah, adding, “The other intriguing thing that I have found out is to the extent that we are supplying close to 150 megawatts to our neighbouring countries, Benin and all of them, that amount that is realised from the power that we supply to these neighbouring countries, doesn’t even come to the ECG.”
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According to Mr. Amoah, the amount in question is not reported to the power distributor, however, “the ECG as the off-taker from the power producers, is supposed to pay for everything to the power producers.”
“So indirectly we create a problem in there so that the revenue inflow stream to ECG is not all accounted for, and then again, you talk about transmission losses, as we speak, it is about 30%,” he told Alfred Ocansey, host of The Key Points.
As pressure continues to mount on the ECG to release a load-shedding timetable, the regulator, Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC), is likely to sanction ECG for failing to comply with the order to publish a load management schedule.
ECG, in response to PURC, indicated that it published planned maintenance works at various operational areas to inform customers about interruptions in power supply.