An audit of the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) revenue collection, revealed a discrepancy of GH₵490 million, between October and December 2023 alone, covering both tariff and non-tariff revenue.
This suggests that numerous other instances of irregularities may have occurred, but have yet to be reported.
The Herald, had since last year, been reporting on the massive financial mismanagement which occurred under Dubik Mahama, leading to his eventual dismissal, which the erstwhile Akufo-Addo government, masked as resignation.
The audit report conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and shared by the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC), said the discrepancy was found between the regional bank accounts and the headquarters’ account of ECG.
ECG, has also come under scrutiny for operating approximately 84 bank accounts with 20 different banks, despite directives to manage a single account for all revenue collections and disbursements.
According to the report, “Between October and December 2023, ECG reported a revenue of GH₵3.38 billion. However, based on information from the Head Office bank accounts analysed, the recorded revenue was GH₵3.87 billion.”
The report disclosed that the unaccounted funds were identified following discussions with ECG, where it was noted that all funds from the district and regional accounts are transferred to the 14 head office accounts at the end of each month.
This resulted in the GH₵490 million discrepancy between the figures reported by the analysis and those reported by ECG.
The audit explained that, the analysis was “Based on identification, review, and analysis of the relevant bank accounts used by ECG in its operations, including those for revenue collection and disbursements.”
To prevent such discrepancies in the future, the auditors recommended that several steps be considered, including the use of debit notes for fuel purchases, internal reconciliation mechanisms, revenue data from the ECG Cash Settlement Platform (ECSP) vendor, a review of the approach to the Single Collection Account, and the development of a monitoring system for allocation.
But the former Managing Director of ECG, Samuel Dubik Mahama, insists under-declaration of revenues is not a criminal offence.
As such, he sees no issue with the recent report suggesting that ECG had failed to account for millions of generated revenue.
Defending his tenure at the company, he told JoyNews’ Isaac Kofi Agyei on The Pulse yesterday, Thursday, January 16, that, “Under-declaration is not a criminal offence.”
He explained that the discrepancies arose because the company needed to pay salaries and other expenses before remitting the revenue to the state.
“Let’s look at the salary bill of ECG. Let’s consider how much ECG needs to keep the lights on in your districts, including maintenance on the lines. Where do you expect ECG to get that money from if ECG gives all the money it receives away?” he argued.
Mr Mahama, further attributed the under-declaration to various factors, including foreign exchange volatility, where the US dollar’s value increases the cost of the cedi.
According to the 2025 Ghana Energy Sector Recovery Programme (GESRP) report, ECG had under-declared a total of GH₵490 million between October and December 2023.
The audit revealed that, the ECG’s financial management practices violate a key guideline set as part on conditionalities by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Under Ghana’s current IMF-supported programme, the ECG was instructed to streamline its financial operations by maintaining only one bank account to consolidate revenue collections and disbursements.
However, the audit found that the state-owned company continues to operate multiple accounts across several banks, complicating its financial processes and potentially affecting transparency.
“We observed through our validation procedures that ECG operates multiple bank accounts (84 accounts) with 20 different banks. This scattered approach to banking is inconsistent with the directive to centralize all financial activities under a single collection account,” the PwC audit noted.
Additionally, PwC has suggested that ECG may want to consider consolidating its operations by selecting a bank with more extensive branches nationwide.
This is expected to not only minimize the need for several accounts across multiple banks but would also streamline operations and improve financial transparency.
The PwC audit findings also highlighted significant concerns regarding ECG’s payment practices as it uncovered that ECG allegedly failed to make timely payments to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and regulatory bodies, despite being obligated by the CWM (Cash Water Management) guidelines to make payments by the 22nd of each month.
This failure to meet payment deadlines is a breach of ECG’s contractual obligations which could lead to further financial constraints for the state-owned entity.
“Untimely payments to IPPs and regulatory bodies have led to delays and disruptions in the energy sector, undermining the smooth operation of Ghana’s power distribution system,” the audit report noted.
The post ECG audit report reveals GH₵490 million missing cash appeared first on The Herald ghana.
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