“Your budget was ¢144m, you spent ¢333m, and you want to increase our tariffs” – PAC tackles ECG

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Makay
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Public Accounts Committee setting

Samuel Atta-Mills, the ranking member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has tackled the management of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) for exceeding its budget by over GHC180 million.

According to Samuel Atta-Mills, it is mindboggling that the ECG spend all these, and still wants to increase the tariffs of Ghanaians.

Speaking during a PAC meeting on Tuesday, October 28, ranking member Samuel Atta-Mills stated, “It is extremely worrying. Before I refer you to the Attorney General for prosecution, let me go through some of these items. There are thirteen items in your budget that you exceeded, without approval from the board.

This happened in 2023. It is the way you guys spend money at ECG”, he added.

The list of ECGs’ approved budgetary allocations against unapproved expenditures for the year 2023 is as follows;

Foreign Training-GH¢31 Million —GH¢91 Million

Cleaning Expenses-GH¢2.8 Million—GH¢10.4 Million

Honorarium Expenses-GH¢3.8 Million—GH¢4.6 Million

Hotel Expenses-GH¢9.3 Million—GH¢12.2 Million

Staff Fuel-GH¢2.8 Million—GH¢7.9 Million

Communication Expenses-GH¢4.2 Million—GH¢7.9 Million

Consultancy Expenses-GH¢40 Million—GH¢58.6 Million

Industrial Relations-GH¢2 Million—GH¢13 Million

Stakeholder Expenses-GH¢3.1 Million—GH¢49 Million

Publicity Expenses-GH¢5.7 Million—GH¢21.8 Million

Professional Fees and Subscriptions-GH¢731k—GH¢1.5 Million

Overseas Travel Expenses-GH¢14 Million—GH¢29.8 Million

Call Centre Expenses-GH¢23.5 Million—GH¢29.3Million

“All these you did on your own without even board approval. Stakeholders’ expenses: your budget was 3.1 million, and you spent 49 million. And you want to increase our tariffs. Budget approval was for 144 million, and you spent 333 million, which is an excess of 189.2 million”.

He further recommended that the managers involved face the Attorney General for prosecution due to the financial indiscipline.

“This shows financial indiscipline. Those managers who were involved, I’m recommending that they need to face the Attorney General for prosecution,” he added.

Meanwhile, some Ghanaians have reacted to the mindboggling ECG expenses, saying, “Something really went wrong. Is it that they underestimated their budgeted revenue? Coz u can’t spend what u don’t have. Didn’t they use the previous ACTUALS as a guide to project the future? No internal Audit dept? Who was the Board Chair by then?”.

“@samuelattamills Honourable.. my humble opinion is this: let the Attorney General go to court… issue a bench warrant for Samuel Dubik Mahama to come answer for these moneys that were apparently “lost” during the time he was CEO, not the current CEO.. or I misunderstood you?”, another netizen added.

Another Ghanaian wrote, “Honestly, we don’t have to let this slide. If NDC say they are different from NPP, then they must do the needful. This is completely unacceptable.

The monies mentioned in these ECG, NSS scandals must be retrieved first, and the culprits must be imprisoned”.

Additionally, a netizen suggested, “They should bring the former ECG boss.  And Honourable Afenyo Markins was on the board of the ECG or even the ECG chair, not sure. This rot happened under him”.

One more netizen added, “Shocking!! So this is how some people are managing our state-owned institutions. And surprisingly, these wasteful expenditures have been going on for years. Where were the auditors and the board of directors? As for this country, corruption will never be eradicated with this attitude”.

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