A few months ago he was described as a generational leader for the laudable initiatives he has introduced at the Electricity Company of Ghana under his watch.
Samuel Dubik Mahama, the Managing Director of ECG in the last year was arguably among the most talked about heads of public institutions.
Among other things, he was touted as being fair and firm in the discharge of his duties where even powerful state institutions like Parliament owing the company were not spared but disconnected in his mass revenue recovery exercise.
Arguably the youngest Managing Director of ECG, Mr. Mahama was appointed by President Akufo-Addo to head the power distribution company in May 2022.
After a little over two years in office, some of his touted achievements include the following;
Ø Implementation of digital solutions to streamline cashless payment and billing processes in an attempt to fight losses and corruption.
Ø Introduction of a new ECG PowerApp resulting in an increase in active users from 500,000 to 3.5 million
Ø Enhance the company’s monthly revenue from GHS 400 million to GHS 1 billion.
Ø Distribution of 275,000 meters as of May 10, 2024, through the Loss Reduction Project (LRP) which has significantly reduced meter request backlogs.
Ø Replacement of outdated meters
His stewardship as the Managing Director of ECG has been recognized and awarded by a number of institutions.
For instance, he was awarded an Exceptional Leader in Sustainable Power Distribution & Reliability at the 4th Africa Public Sector Conference & Awards 2023.
At the 2023 Ghana CEO Awards, Mr. Mahama emerged as the CEO of the Year under the Power Category. He was awarded the Chartered CEO of the Year 2023 at the Distinguished Leadership Awards Institute of Leadership & Governance.
Moreover, at the 7th Ghana Energy Awards, he emerged the CEO of the Year and many more.
ECG under his leadership has also picked some notable awards such as;
1. Marketing-Oriented State-Owned Agency of the Year
2. Public Sector Campaign of the Year
3. Public Sector Team of the Year
With these achievements, the MD won the admiration of many Ghanaians as he has been described as a transformational and generational leader.
But in recent days there has been an unexpected twist in the plot. Mr. Mahama has become a center of attraction for the wrong reasons.
For instance, the Africa Center of Energy Policy (ACEP) is calling for the head of the MD including other management team members for what it describes as inefficiencies and lack of transparency and accountability.
Some accusations leveled against Mr. Mahama include an alleged “dubious” ECG PowerApp design and development contract. This contract, ACEP believes is bedeviled with financial discrepancies which require a thorough audit.
The company under his leadership is alleged to have flouted a directive by the PURC and the President of Ghana to operate a single account to enhance visibility and auditing. ACEP alleges that ECG continues to operate 61 accounts through 16 banks and “would not make details of those accounts visible to auditors.”
There is also an allegation of manipulation of the exchange rate used by ECG in the cash waterfall mechanism causing huge losses for the company.
Despite Samuel Dubik Mahama’s earlier achievements, pressure is mounting for him to be relieved of his duties with ACEP leading the charge.
ACEP in a statement says, “the current management of ECG should be relieved of the jobs and immediately replaced with effective and transparent management that would salvage the company and its attendant fiscal burden on the state.”
