Minister for Energy and Green Transition has raised concerns over the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) procurement decisions, which have led to thousands of containers being stranded at Ghana’s ports, accumulating demurrage costs amounting to GHS 1.5 billion.

John Abdulai Jinapor, speaking in an interview on TV3, described ECG’s procurement practices as excessive and poorly managed, resulting in financial losses and inefficiencies within the power distributor.

“It’s all because they are engaged in what I call very frivolous procurements. Now, they have about 3,000 containers stuck at the ports, generating demurrage of about GHS 1.5 billion, which is very unacceptable. Some of the things they’ve procured will last them ten years, some will even expire in five years,” Jinapor stated.

In response to the situation, the Minister announced the formation of a committee to investigate ECG’s procurement processes and assess the financial impact of the stranded containers.

“So we’ve commissioned a committee to investigate ECG’s procurements and the cost of these containers stuck at the ports. The committee is doing a very good job,” he added.

Jinapor further indicated that preliminary findings point to serious lapses in procurement practices under past ECG management.

“So far, the preliminary reports I have gotten indicate that there’s massive rot at ECG.”

As part of efforts to reform the sector, the Minister outlined plans for a broader audit beyond financial reviews, including human resource and technical assessments.

“But beyond that, there will be another technical report. What the PwC has done is a financial audit. We want to do a human resource audit, a deeper audit of the entire energy sector, which will then give us a clear picture of the inefficiencies so that we can tailor that in terms of our policy objective and policy directive to address this.”

Through these measures, the Ministry seeks to enhance efficiency, enforce accountability, and improve the overall performance of the energy sector.