The Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU) has expressed no surprise that the Energy Minister’s Technical Committee identified procurement lapses as one of the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) problems in its report.
According to PUWU, it had earlier submitted a joint Position Paper with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to the Minister, highlighting the major challenges facing the ECG.
Primarily amongst the challenges were procurement and clearance which were cited in the report of the committee constituted by the Energy and Green Transition Minister, Dr. John Abdulai Jinapor.
In a statement signed by the General Secretary of the Union, Timothy Nyame, and issued on Wednesday, April 02, 2025, PUWU said it proposed solutions to address these challenges that didn’t require privatisation of the power distribution company.
“Among the key concerns raised with the committee were procurement issues
and excessive government interference in the company. Therefore, PUWU was
not surprised when the Ministerial Investigative Committee uncovered significant procurement and clearing violations,” parts of the statement noted.
The comments come on the back of the ECG’s missing containers at the Tema Port which has generated issues over the past few days.
The matter came to light after the Minister constituted a Technical Committee to probe the ECG’s missing containers at the Tema Port where it was discovered that over 1,300 of them were missing.
Following the Committee’s investigations, operatives of the National Security were able to trace over 40 of the missing containers to the warehouse of a private company within the Greater Accra region.
In the meantime, the former Managing Director of the ECG, Samuel Dubik Mahama, in an interview on TV3’s Ghana Tonight Wednesday, April 02, 2025, indicated that the containers in question were not missing and were still at the port.
According to him, the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) under whose purview the containers remained auctioned them.
He said his outfit wrote to the GRA on why their containers were being auctioned without their notice but were not given any response.
But, PUWU says it fully supports the probe into the matter to fish out the perpetrators for them to face justice.
“To ensure that ECG receives value for money and that resources are redirected to critical areas, PUWU fully supports the efforts of the Ministerial Committee in locating the missing containers. We also expect that those involved in these transactions will be held accountable and answer for their actions,” the statement added.
Missing ECG containers: Chairman of Parliament’s Energy Committee blames ECG Board
