The Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC) has charged Board Members of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to make payments of GHS 5.8m for overseeing power outages without prior notifications to consumers for the period between January and March this year.
The fine was initially slapped on the ECG, but the PURC said it could not allow the company to bear the cost due to the nature of its business, and the likely impact on service delivery. It thus passed on the fine to the company’s board members, asserting that the board members were at all material times responsible for providing strategic direction to ensure the provision of safe, adequate, efficient, reasonable, and non-discriminatory service to consumers.
“For failure to comply with the 3-day statutory notice on notification and publication of planned outages required under Regulation 39 of L.I. 2413, the Commission in accordance with Regulation 45 of L.I. 2413, also imposed a regulatory charge of 3,000 penalty units on ECG for each of the 163 breaches, amounting to Five Million, Eight Hundred and Sixty-Eight Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHS 5,868,000.00).
“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.
“For that reason, 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),” noted the PURC.
The board includes the ECG MD, Samuel Mahama Dubik and eight others. Keli Gadzekpo, who resigned as board chairman three weeks ago, will be affected by this fine. Chief Whip, Frank Annor Dompreh and five other individuals are all affected.
Additionally, the PURC in its letter to the ECG on Monday, April 15, 2024, charged the ECG to pay an amount of GHS446,283,706.29 to be paid before or by 30th April 2024 as a result of actual revenue collected by ECG, declared by ECG to the CWM, and approved by the CWM Standing Committee for payment from August 2023 to February 2024, but was never paid.
Asserting that failure to make payment, the Board Members and Management of ECG shall be held liable.
The fines charged the Board Members of the ECG together with the payment of the GHS 446m revenue collected for the aforementioned period, are to be paid into a dedicated fuel account under the joint control of the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Finance.