Report by Pearl Amoako – 13/03/2024

John Abdulai Jinapor, the Ranking Member of the Energy Committee of Parliament and MP for Yapei Kusawgu, has alleged that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is misleading the public regarding the ongoing power outages, commonly referred to as “Dumsor,” in the country.

According to Jinapor, the widespread load shedding is not due to technical glitches, as claimed by the ECG, but rather financial issues. He criticized the ECG for attributing the outages to overloaded and faulty transformers, stating that this is not the real cause of the problem.

“The ECG is misinforming us of the real issues of the recent power outages. Instead they are attributing these outages to overloaded and faulty transformers which is not the case.”

Addressing the media in Parliament House, Accra, Jinapor expressed his disappointment at the mismanagement, misuse of funds, and gross abuse of the waterfall mechanism in the energy sector, which he believes has led to the persistent power outages for over two months.

Highlighting the need for transparency, Jinapor revealed that he recently obtained the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission’s cash waterfall mechanism validation report for January 2024 payments. He emphasized that the publication of energy sales payments every month is mandated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“We have been monitoring the situation and just yesterday we laid hands on the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission’s cash waterfall mechanism validation report for January 2024 payment.”

Jinapor called for the energy sector to acknowledge the generation challenge and take necessary steps to address the situation.