Ghana’s Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has fined the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) GHS36,000 for failing to submit all bank and investment accounts it currently operates to the Commission.
The PURC also fined each board member of the company GHC 5.8 million.
Details
In a letter submitted to the ECG on Monday, April 15, the PURC said it found that “details of ECG’s bank accounts submitted were incomplete, contrary to the Order. 3.3 Submission of Information Related to Operational Matters.”
The information requested relates to the tariff revenue allocation under the Cash Waterfall Mechanism (CWM), the provision of regulatory audit data, and the submission of information related to operational matters, as well as the provision of other regulatory audit data.
Penalties and Fines
In breach of the audit, the Commission imposed an initial regulatory charge of 3,000 penalty units on ECG in accordance with Regulation 45 of LI 2413, amounting to GHC 36,000.
The amount is due to the Commission before 22 April 2024. Failure to pay the fine before the due date will attract an additional 3000 penalty units for each working day that the ECG doesn’t pay.
Additional Fines For Board Members
PURC also imposed a regulatory charge of 3,000 penalty units on ECG for each of the 163 breaches, amounting to GHC 5,868,000.
The Commission stated that, due to the nature of ECG’s business, paying that amount would affect the quality of service to consumers and therefore passed on the fine to the board members of the company which includes the ECG MD, Samuel Dubik Mahama.
Zoom In
The PURC said board members were at all material times responsible for providing strategic direction to ensure the provision of safe, adequate, efficient, reasonable, and non-discriminatory service to consumers.
The board members of ECG in office from 1 January to 18th March 2024 are to pay the regulatory charge of GHS5,868,000 into a dedicated fuel account under the joint control of the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Finance on or before 30th May 2024.
In addition to honouring its ongoing obligations under the Cash Waterfall Mechanism, the PURC ordered ECG to pay the amount of GHS446,283,706.29 to the Category B beneficiaries under the CWM.
Zoom Out
The ECG has been recently facing challenges with power production. Consumers have been facing power outages throughout the country, leading to many asking for a “load shedding” timetable to prepare for the outages.
Source: JoyOnline
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