The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has taken a significant step by imposing a substantial fine of Five Million, Eight Hundred and Sixty-Eight Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHS 5,868,000.00) on former members of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) board who served from January 1 to March 18, 2024.
This decision stems from their failure to comply with Regulation 39 of L.I. 2413, which mandates prior notification to consumers before any power interruption.
Among those affected by this penalty are Keli Gadzekpo, who resigned as Board Chair on March 26, and the current ECG Managing Director, Samuel Dubik Mahama.
PURC had directed ECG, in a letter dated March 18, to issue a load-shedding timetable by April 2, 2024. However, this directive was disregarded without any explanation.
In addition to the timetable, the Commission requested ECG to provide the total number of planned outages conducted between January and March.
In its subsequent communication on Monday, April 15, PURC revealed that their analysis of the submitted data indicated 4142 outages within ECG’s operational areas during the specified period. Out of these, 165 were ECG-planned outages, with only 40 supported by public notices. Shockingly, none of the 125 remaining outages had any notices.
Moreover, of the 40 notices issued, 38 did not comply with the mandatory three-day notice period stipulated by Regulation 39 of L.I. 2413. This revealed a significant lapse in adherence to the law by ECG.
Consequently, PURC announced the imposition of 3,000 penalty units on ECG for each breach of the directive regarding the timetable. This fine extends to ECG’s board members due to the company’s ownership structure.
However, considering the potential adverse effects on service quality and consumers, the Commission deemed it impractical to levy the fine directly on ECG. Instead, they instructed the nine board members to settle the penalty by May 30, 2024, into a dedicated fuel account jointly managed by the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Finance.
