The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), the sole power distributor and retailer in the southern part of the country, started 2025 on the wrong foot. ECG began the year with an explosive scandal of missing containers with cables imported into the country. This scandal became the talk of the town, with many Ghanaians questioning how such a scandal could happen under such bizarre circumstances.
Let’s delve into the details of the missing containers saga.
The Missing Containers – The Facts
January 2023 – December 2024 – The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) procured approximately 2,491 containers loaded with cables, transformers, and other electrical equipment meant for national energy infrastructure projects. However, concerns began to emerge over delays and inconsistencies in clearing these containers from the Tema Port.
January 2025 – Upon assuming office, the newly appointed Minister for Energy, John Abdulai Jinapor, conducted a routine visit to the Tema Port. During the inspection, he uncovered significant discrepancies between the number of containers ECG had ordered and what was actually present at the port. A preliminary report indicated that a large number of containers were missing or unaccounted for.
March 2025 – Following further investigations, a special investigative committee chaired by Prof. Innocent Senyo Acquah presented its findings. The committee revealed that only 1,134 containers could be traced and verified, leaving a staggering 1,357 containers missing. This deepened concerns about procurement breaches, negligence, and possible criminal activity within ECG operations.
March 26, 2025 – Energy Minister John Jinapor officially announced that a full criminal investigation had been launched to track down the missing containers. He emphasized the seriousness of the situation, indicating that the missing goods represented substantial public investment losses and a threat to ongoing energy projects.
March 27, 2025 – In a swift operation, National Security operatives retrieved 40 of the missing containers from a private warehouse located in Kpone. The warehouse belonged to an Indian businessman who claimed to have purchased the containers through legitimate means. Authorities began further probing into how the containers ended up there without official clearance from ECG or customs. In all, 14 persons have been arrested in connection with the missing containers.
The High Street Journal, in an exclusive interview with the former Minister for Power under the erstwhile Mahama administration, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, raised a number of lapses in the operations of ECG, which might have caused this scandal. He further proposed a number of reforms to turn around the state of ECG.
Corporate Governance Collapse at ECG
The former Minister of Power maintains that the scandal is a result of gross corporate governance failure. He questioned why a limited liability company like ECG, which is supposed to be managed along strict commercial lines, would import materials far beyond its cash flow capacity.
“Which company, knowing its liquidity constraints, would recklessly import materials it cannot clear?” he queried, calling the situation a classic case of poor corporate decision-making that flies in the face of sound financial management principles.
Poor Procurement Choices: The CIF vs. X-Warehouse Blunder
Dr. Donkor criticized ECG’s continued reliance on the Cost, Insurance, and Freight (CIF) shipping arrangement, despite worsening liquidity challenges.
According to him, opting for CIF, where the supplier’s obligation ends once goods are shipped and documented, exposes ECG to unnecessary financial and operational risks, including heavy demurrage charges.
He cannot fathom why ECG is not opting for the “X-Warehouse” procurement method, where suppliers clear goods through customs and deliver directly to ECG’s warehouse, saving ECG from costly delays and liabilities.
“When the operating environment changes, when you have a liquidity crisis, when your finances are not as well as they used to be, you have to adopt methodologies that reflect your present reality,” he recounted.
He added that, “if suppliers were doing what we call in the trade X Warehouse, then at best ECG would owe the contractors the value of the goods. The issue of demurrage, the issue of clearance, would not have been the burden of ECG. So I believe that was wrong.”
Ethical Breach by Factories
Beyond ECG’s internal failings, Dr. Donkor pointed to the disturbing conduct of some factories that allegedly bought and melted down materials consigned to ECG.
The companies that purchased the cables, Dr. Donkor says, behaved unethically and failed to do due diligence. In his view, the cables are not raw materials; they are finished products. Melting them down without verifying the source, he says, was very unethical and criminal.
He likened the act to purchasing stolen goods, arguing that the factories should have conducted due diligence before acquiring and altering the materials.
“For any factory to buy ECG or materials consigned to ECG and melt those materials into another form, that factory is also culpable. Why would you melt a cable into something else? The cable is not a raw material, it’s a finished product. And the least you can do is to find out the authority of whoever is purporting to be supplying that,” he told The High Street Journal.
Directors Must Be Held Accountable
In a strong call for accountability, Dr. Donkor insisted that the ECG board of directors, under whose watch the scandal occurred, should be collectively held responsible, not just the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
He cited the Companies Act, which places the ultimate governance responsibility on the shoulders of the board, emphasizing that institutional reforms must accompany any investigation.
He stated that, “The directors of ECG as a corporate entity should be held collectively liable, all the board members. Whichever board under whose supervision this happened should be held collectively responsible, and not just the chief executive.”
Dr. Kwabena Donkor strongly believes the country must end the culture where boards escape liability while CEOs are sacrificed. Governance, he says, is a collective duty.
A Wake-Up Call for Institutional Reform
Dr. Donkor concluded by underscoring the need for a sweeping institutional reform at ECG. He reiterated that the scandal is a testament to the deeper structural and procedural weaknesses that must be addressed if ECG is to become a viable, well-run entity.
He calls for a management, processes, and procurement overhaul. The former Power Minister believes Ghana cannot afford this level of dysfunction, especially in a critical sector like power.
