The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Hon. Samuel Atta Mills has questioned the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) for spending far beyond its approved budget for 2023 without the approval of its board.
According to him, ECG exceeded its budget on at least 13 expenditure items in 2023, which is very worrying.
Addressing officials of the company at a PAC sitting on October 28, the Chairman went through the items and the amounts by which the had been exceeded.
“Before I refer you to the Attorney General for prosecution, let’s go through some of these items,” he said.
He cited several examples of overspending by the company.
“You said you have foreign training of 31 million, but you spent 91 million. Why and who approved that?” he asked.
“Cleaning expenditure, 2.8 million that was your budget, but ECG spent 10.4. How many suites did you clean?”
“Honorarium expenses, 3.8 but you spent 4.6. Home expenses, 9.3 million was your budget but you spent 12.2.”
The PAC Chair continued to list several other areas of overspending.
“Staff fuel, did they drive around the world? Budget was 2.8 and you spent 3.6 million. Communication expenses, your budget was 4.2 but you spent 7.9 million.”
“Consultancy, budget was 40 million but you spent 58.6 million. All these you did on your own without even board approval,” he said.
“Industrial relations, your budget was 2 million but you spent 13 million. Stakeholders expenses, your budget was 3.1 million and you spent 49 million. And you want to increase our tariffs?” He questioned.
“Publicity, your budget was 3.7 and you spent 21.8 million. Professional fees and subscriptions, you were supposed to spend 731 thousand cedis and you spent 1.5 million.”
“Overseas travel expenses you were supposed to spend 14 million and you spent 29.8 million. Call centre expenses, you were supposed to spend 23.5 million and you spent 29.3 million.”
This means that the ECG had a total approved budget of GH¢144 million but actual spending of GH¢333 million, representing an excess of GH¢189.2 million.
He said the committee considers these expenditures a breach of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) and called for sanctions against those responsible.
“This shows financial indiscipline. The recommendation is that sanctions under Section 96 of the Public Financial Management Act 921 should be applied to the officers involved,” he said.
“CEO, those managers who were involved, I’m recommending that they need to face the Attorney General for prosecution.”
In response, the Acting Managing Director of ECG, Ing. Julius Kpekpena, acknowledged the company’s lapses and said corrective measures are being implemented.
“We will not try to justify the infractions. We accept that we overstepped our boundaries. I think the most important thing is that we have put in place measures to control expenditure to make sure that we stay within the budget,” he said.
