Minister of Energy John Jinapor has accused the former Energy Ministry and Finance Ministry of being the masterminds behind the unlawful spending of the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) under-declared revenue of five billion Ghana Cedis (5bn).

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He made these allegations during an interview aired on Sunday, February 16, 2025, on TV3's HostIssues. Speaking about the financial mess within power producing companies following the PwC report, which highlighted the financial disarray and looming power crisis, the Minister revealed he was shocked after requesting the first month's report from ECG.

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He discovered that "ECG collects about 1.5 billion, and about 5 million is not declared as far as the cash waterfall is concerned. What ECG does is, of the 1.5bn they keep five hundred million first before they move in to take more from the 1bn, which is in contravention of the Cash Waterfall Mechanism policy. There is a Cash Waterfall Mechanism committee being reconstituted, with the Ministry of Finance representing the ministry.

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They will determine the formula to apportion the money. So, if ECG decides to apportion the money, it means they keep the money and spend it in-house. This 5bn we are talking about are monies that are collected but ECG fails to declare and then appropriates to spend," Mr. Jinapor stated.

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In light of this, Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and other power supply companies are threatening power cuts over the ballooning debts owed to them by the government. "When they do that, the IPPs would not be paid, generators would not be paid, transmission grid companies would not be paid, even the statutory levies would not be paid," Mr. Jinapor said.

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Mr. Jinapor also criticized ECG's careless procurement deals and contractual obligations, which he believes contributed to the energy sector’s crisis. "And so far, what we are realizing is that they have entered into many contractual obligations. Many banks deduct their money at source. They have just contracted what they call a super vendor that takes 5% at source, and they have contracted a certain payment app that deducts 3% at source. They have a lot of deductions at source that eat away a chunk of the money," he concluded.

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