The board members of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) who served from January 1st to March 18th, 2024, have been instructed to pay a total fine of GHS5,868,000.00 by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) due to their oversight of unnotified power outages during that period.
This regulatory charge comes after the PURC found that there were numerous outages without proper notification to consumers, with 163 instances of planned outages lacking the required legal notice.
The fine, initially levied on ECG, was redirected to the board members to avoid adversely affecting the company’s operations and service quality. The PURC stated that the board members, responsible for strategic direction during the mentioned timeframe, should be held accountable.
Notably, the Deputy Energy Minister, Herbert Krapah, who chairs the board, won’t be affected as his tenure falls outside the specified period.
Additionally, ECG has been fined GHS36,000 for incomplete submission of its bank and investment accounts to the Commission. Failure to comply with this order will result in further daily penalties until compliance is achieved.
Furthermore, ECG has been instructed to pay GHS446,283,706.29 to Category B beneficiaries under the Cash Waterfall Mechanism, with a deadline set for April 30th, 2024. Failure to meet this deadline will also hold the board members and management of ECG accountable.
