A 2020 report of the Auditor-General has unraveled how prepaid meters and conductors procured by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) have been left unused for 5 years. The abandoned meters and conductors are said to be worth GHC59,161,964.56.
Procured between 2014 and 2016, the meters have not been issued out to customers because, ECG management failed to distribute old stock before purchasing new meters, the audit report mentioned.
The Auditor-General has thus recommended that pre-payment meters and conductors are given out without delay.
According to the report, failure to do that, the amount involved should be recovered from the officers who engaged in the procurement.
Per the review of store documents, the report noted that the items were either partially issued or have not been issued at all but are rather being kept in stores at the time of inspection on August 8, 2019.
The procurement status report of 2018 and stores receipt vouchers also revealed that management procured new prepayment meters for the developmental activities and abandoned the previous procurement made.
Management of ECG responding to the left meters said, some technical challenges were identified during the initial stage of installation of the meters and as a result could not be used for the intended purpose.
The audit report read, “The hard all Alu bare conductors 255sq were procured for some specific projects which are now encountering right of way land disputes. Management is still negotiating to secure clearance for the continuation of the affected projects”
The audit report, related to the audited financial statements of the company for the year ended 31 December, 2018. The company’s operations ended with a loss of GHC2,749,371 in 2018, as compared to GHC642,120 in 2017
The report cited other infractions and management issues including head office and procurement system losses, stock differences, materials on loan, capacity charges by Cenit Energy amounting to GHC182,576,235.15, and damaged transformers totaling GHC427,893.70
Source: myghanadaily
