Electricity Company of Ghana fined for breaches, failure to disclose information
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has fined the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) GHS 36,000 for failing to disclose all existing bank and investment accounts despite several requests.
According to a letter submitted to the country’s electricity regulator, it imposed an initial regulatory charge of 3,000 penalty units on ECG under Regulation 45 of LI 2413, totalling GHS 36,000.
The ECG must pay the commission the initial regulatory charge on or before April 22, plus an additional 3000 penalty units for each day the company fails to pay by the deadline.
ECG is also facing another fine of GHC 5.868 million for 163 breaches related to the notification and publication of planned outages, which board members in office from January 1 to March 1 will be held accountable for by May 30.
“The Commission has determined that having regard to the nature of ECG’s ownership and business, the imposition of the penalty of Five Million, Eight Hundred and Sixty-Eight Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHS 5,868,000.00) on ECG would be counter-productive, as payment from ECG’s revenue would have a rebounding adverse effect on quality of service and consumers who pay tariffs to the company,” the letter reads in part.
Consequently, “in the interest of justice and to protect the interests of consumers, the Commission shall hold the Board Members of ECG who were in office from 1 January to 18 March 2024 liable for the payment of the Five Million, Eight Hundred and Sixty-Eight Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHS 5,868,000.00).”
The electricity company has also been ordered to pay GHS 446,283,706.29 (roughly $33 million) to Category B beneficiaries under the Cash Waterfall Mechanism (CWM) — a system designed to fairly distribute electricity sales revenue among relevant players in the energy sector’s supply chain — which represents unpaid revenue from August 2023 to February 2024.
The Category B beneficiaries include the Volta River Authority (VRA), Bui Power Authority, BXC Solar, Meinergy, Safisana, Early Power, GNGC (Ghana Gas), and the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo).
The commission said a portion of the fine must be paid by April 30, 2024, or board members and management will be held liable.
In recent times, Ghana has encountered electricity challenges, losing 10% of its total generation capacity. In October 2023, many parts of the country experienced blackouts due to gas shortages for power generation.
