2024 ECG audit reveals GH₵5.3bn in under-declared revenue

A comprehensive 2024 audit of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), has uncovered a GH₵5.3 billion revenue discrepancy.

According to the PwC report, ECG continued to under-declare revenues to the regulator.

In 2024, it under-declared revenues by GH₵5.3 billion cedis. Its accounts showed it collected GH₵15.8 billion but it told the regulator it collected GH₵10.4 billion.

Even though ECG significantly under-declared revenues, it still didn’t pay value chain players properly based on what it declared and the cash waterfall mechanism, the report noted.

It added that out of the GH₵10.4 billion cedis declared, it paid GH₵ 6.5 billion leaving a variance of GH₵ 3.9 billion.

The report further reveals that a vendor contracted by ECG to collect revenues on its behalf received a staggering GH₵402 million in commissions—nearly as much as the Volta River Authority (VRA), which was paid GH₵412 million, and significantly more than Bui Power, which received GH₵323 million.

Notably, this vendor was paid before the entities responsible for power generation.

According to the report, despite the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditions mandating a single collection account, ECG maintained 99 bank accounts across 19 banks in 2024. This requirement is a key conditionality of the IMF programme.

However, 78% of its revenue collections were funneled into a single account.