Power cuts: ECG owes IPPs a staggering US$1.5 billion – John Jinapor

The Ranking Member of Parliament’s Energy Committee, John Jinapor, has revealed that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) owes Independent Power Producers (IPPs) US$1.5 billion.

According to Mr. Jinapor, this massive debt is primarily due to ECG’s failure to meet its financial obligations to IPPs and its inability to settle bills for purchased electricity in full.

Mr. Jinapor’s disclosure stems from the recent power cuts being experienced across the country.

Referring to a report from the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) that he has reviewed, Mr. Jinapor highlighted instances where ECG allegedly mismanaged funds, diverting significant sums away from debt repayment to other expenditures.

In a media interview, Mr. Jinapor urged ECG to provide transparent explanations for the recent power outages experienced by Ghanaians.

“ECG owes $1.5 billion, when they take the money from Ghanaians, they fail to pay the IPPs and use the funds to do whatever they want with it and they fail to pay the full price of the power they purchase and PURC has brought a report that when ECG comes in possession of a substantial amount of money they refuse to pay the debt they owe, they spend the money recklessly, and this is an official report from the PURC.”

“Some of the things they buy, they don’t even need it, and now they want to be buying fuel, which is not even their core duty, all these are a reason the finances aren’t adding up,” he said.

Mr Jinapor believes the widespread load shedding arose from financial issues and not technical glitches from overloaded and faulty transformers as claimed by the ECG.

“We have been monitoring the situation and just yesterday, we laid hands on the PURC’s Cash Waterfall Mechanism Validation Report for January 2024.

Mr. Jinapor further characterized the situation as a gross abuse of the cash waterfall mechanism and mismanagement of funds, challenging the narrative put forth by the ECG.

Additionally, Mr. Jinapor criticized ECG for what he sees as wasteful spending on items like cables, malfunctioning meters, and what he considers unnecessary contracts.