Correspondence between the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) suggests that electricity meters imported by ECG have been found on the open market, contrary to official procedures. This revelation raises concerns over procurement irregularities and potential financial losses for the state-owned power distributor.
The meters in question were reportedly part of containers auctioned after remaining at the port for an extended period. Letters from former ECG Managing Director, Samuel Dubik Mahama, to the GRA between September and December 2022 indicate that multiple shipping containers assigned to ECG were auctioned without the company’s knowledge. Some of the meters from these auctions subsequently surfaced in unauthorized sales. In these letters, Mr. Mahama expressed deep concern over the infiltration of these meters into the electricity distribution system, warning that they could exacerbate ECG’s already alarming commercial losses.
The auctioned containers were part of a consignment supplied by L & R Investment & Trading Limited. According to ECG, the goods, which were shipped between July 2017 and December 2018, remained uncleared at the port for over four years due to a contractual dispute between the company and the supplier.
Adding to the controversy, in August 2022, Ashanti Regional Customs officers intercepted a bus allegedly smuggling electricity prepaid meters into Ghana. The officers discovered 117 prepaid meters hidden within the air-conditioning unit and other compartments of a bus traveling from Kumasi to Aflao. However, uncertainty surrounds whether these meters were genuinely smuggled, as claimed, or if they were part of the auctioned consignment, given that the bus was traveling from Kumasi to Aflao—a border town—rather than entering from it.
Around this same period, numerous reports emerged of illegal meters being connected to homes, with allegations that politically connected individuals were behind the sales. The link between these sales and the auctioned meters remains uncertain.
The practice of ECG-imported goods overstaying at the port, leading to auctions, appears to have been common between 2017 and 2024. Another letter from the former ECG MD, dated March 2, 2023, also sought the intervention of the Commissioner-General of the GRA to halt an ongoing auction of containers assigned to both ECG and Power Distribution Services (PDS). PDS had been contracted to manage ECG for 25 years but its contract was abruptly terminated due to disputes with the government.
Further documents reviewed by The High Street Journal suggest that ECG’s consignments remained at the port because management claimed it lacked the funds to clear them. An investigative report commissioned by the current Minister of Energy and Green Transition has cited these instances as procurement breaches. The investigation into ECG’s container hold-ups at Tema Port and related procurement issues confirmed that at least 1,300 containers assigned to ECG are unaccounted for, raising serious questions about financial accountability and operational inefficiencies within the power distribution company.
