Africa-Press – Ghana. Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, the Minister for Finance, has stated that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) will use a single revenue collection account, which has been set up for its activities.
Dr. Amin Adam said this while addressing reporters on the sidelines of the just-ended International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group 2024 Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C.
“We have also established a single collection account. Therefore, ECG will not collect revenue through the many accounts that they operate. Everything will come through a single collection account. So it is easier for all of us to track,” said Dr Amin Adam.
The Finance Minister expressed optimism about the fact that the move will ensure that ECG’s collected revenue can be easily traced.
This also comes on the back of Bongo lawmaker Edward Bawa’s revelation that the power distributor has been operating 61 bank accounts.
Also, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) fined the ECG GHȼ36,000 for failing to submit all bank and investment accounts it currently operates to the Commission.
The member of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament contributing to the power situation on The Key Points on Saturday, April 20, emphasised that the minority anticipated that the power distributor was running 37 accounts; however, the number nearly doubled.
Mr. Bawa has therefore called for the dissolution of the ECG board of directors and the dismissal of the Managing Director, Mr. Dubik Mahama, for “clear violations of the cash waterfall mechanism (CWM).”
“IMF had indicated that you have a single account such that anytime you take the revenues, we can follow the account where the money is put; the President subsequently gives an order that to run a single account.
“When PwC [Price Waterhouse Coopers] contracted to audit the cash waterfall mechanism and the activities of the ECG, they refused to make their bank accounts available to the auditor. At that time, we [the NDC] thought that they were running around 37 accounts. Per the documents that have been presented by ECG itself to PURC, they are running 61 accounts,” he told Alfred Ocansey on The Key Points.
“That is a clear violation of the directives of the President; the directives that have been given to us by the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and the whole idea of the cash waterfall mechanism, so on the strength of that, what business does still have to be in the position,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Amin Adam further indicated that the government is “auditing the Cash Waterfall Mechanism.”
He believes that the challenges facing the cash waterfall mechanism if addressed will bring “accountability and transparency to revenue collections and ensure it is being used for its purpose.”
“We have started auditing and we are also required to publish the findings from the audit. We have already done one audit and we have published the findings.”
“We are going to continue to do that so that we can bring transparency and accountability so that all revenues meant for the cash waterfall goes to the cash waterfall for the purpose for which it was created,” Dr. Amin Adam stated.
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