Energy Minister, John Abdulai Jinapor, has unearthed alarming details surrounding the egregious mismanagement and illicit sale of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) cables.
Jinapor’s discovery was made during an exhaustive investigation, wherein he visited multiple locations and found that stolen ECG cables, initially intended for national electrification projects, had been surreptitiously diverted to aluminum smelting factories.
“We’ve visited about four different places, about four, and two of them are aluminum smelting companies, and they claim that some people came to sell it to them,” Jinapor divulged.
He revealed that two foreign nationals, owners of companies implicated in the smelting process, have been apprehended, and security agencies are actively pursuing other culprits.
An additional company, owned by an Indian national, claimed to have purchased the containers last year from unknown individuals, prompting authorities to expand their investigations.
Jinapor described his findings at one of the warehouses as alarming, stating, “When you peep through the warehouse, you can see a lot of drums of ECG cables, a lot of them with ECG labels on the carton or wooden carton that wraps the cables.”
In response to this shocking discovery, Hon.Jinapor has formally requested a comprehensive investigation from the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB).
“I’ve spoken to the Director of NIB, which is formerly BNI. He’s asked that I put in a formal request for a thorough investigation, which I have done,” he stated.
Jinapor also proposed establishing a specialized task force to track the serial numbers of the missing containers and trace their movement from the ports to their final destinations.
“What I think is that we need a team that can track the serial numbers of the containers. We can get a very good former customs official, some forensic guys,” he suggested.
This team, with the support of national security, would scrutinize manifests to determine when the containers arrived, how they were received, and where they were ultimately sent.
“If we do that, we’ll get a lot of people into the net, and then the law will take its course,” he said.
Jinapor emphasized that addressing this issue is not just about punishing the culprits but ensuring long-term reforms to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
“My main focus is that we must reform the sector so that in four years’ time, or sometime when Jinapor also leaves, we don’t have a repeat of these issues,” he stated.
The scandal has also brought to light procurement irregularities and financial mismanagement within ECG, with an estimated liability of GH₵1.5 billion.
