The Minister of Energy and Green Transition, Dr. John Abdulai Jinapor, has disclosed that 40 of the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) containers that got missing at the port have been traced to a warehouse belonging to an Indian national.
The revelation follows an investigation by a committee tasked by the Minister to probe procurement activities of the ECG under the previous administration which Dr. Jinapor says has led to significant losses to the state.
According to Jinapor, ECG engaged in “frivolous procurements,” leading to significant financial losses. He has revealed that approximately 3,000 ECG containers are currently stranded at the ports, accumulating demurrage costs estimated at GHC1.5 billion.
Speaking on Hot Issues on TV3 Sunday, February 16, 2025, Dr. Jinapor disclosed that he has set up a committee to probe the ECG’s activities to ascertain what accounted for the huge losses stemming from the procurement of containers whose content were things the Company didn’t need immediately.
“It’s all because they are engaged in what I call very frivolous procurements. Now, they have about 3,000 containers stuck at the ports, generating demurrage of about GHC 1.5 billion, which is very unacceptable. Some of the things they’ve procured will last them ten years, some will even expire in five years,” he had indicated.
To address these concerns, he confirmed that a committee has been set up to investigate ECG’s procurement activities and the financial burden caused by the stranded containers.
“So we’ve commissioned a committee to investigate ECG’s procurements and the cost of these containers stuck at the ports. The committee is doing a very good job,” he added.
Meanwhile, Prof. Innocent Senyo Acquah, Chairman of the investigative committee, has indicated in its report presented to the Minister that the ECG initially claimed to have 2,491 uncleared containers filled with cables and other essential equipment at the port. However, an independent audit at the port found only 1,134 containers, leaving 1,347 missing.
Commenting on the update of the investigations by the Committee on TV3’s News Central Thursday, March 27, 2025, the Minister commended the National Security and law enforcement agencies for making headways with the whereabouts of some of the containers which he says have been diverted to a private warehouse belonging to a foreigner.
According to the Minister who is also the MP for Yapei Kusawgu, the 40 containers have been confiscated with investigations still ongoing for the law to take its course.
“But the most important one has to do with the whereabouts of those containers. The briefing I got this morning, and let me commend the National Security operatives and the law enforcement agencies. The information I got this morning is that already, they’ve traced about 40 of them to a particular warehouse in Kpong which belongs to an Indian man of extraction and they’ve confiscated all the 40 containers and moved them to a secured location.
“The man indicates that those containers were sold to him last year and that’s a matter of investigation and the law enforcement agencies would ensure that the law takes its course,” Dr. Jinapor said.
Meanwhile, the Minister had disclosed in his previous interview on Hot Issues that the development at the ECG warrants a broader audit of the energy sector, including a human resource and technical review.
This, per Dr. Jinapor’s assertion, is due to the managers’ failure to adhere to proper procurement processes and guidelines leading to the rot.
“So far, the preliminary reports I have gotten indicate that there’s massive rot at ECG.
“But beyond that, there will be another technical report. What the PwC has done is a financial audit. We want to do a human resource audit, a deeper audit of the entire energy sector, which will then give us a clear picture of the inefficiencies so that we can tailor that in terms of our policy objective and policy directive to address this,” he added.
