The Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana, Samuel Dubik Masubir Mahama has been asked to lay off some staff of the company if he wants to succeed and see the company making profits.
Energy Analyst, Benjamin Nsiah Asare speaking on Angel Morning Show (AMS) on Wednesday said this is the right way to go if the country’s sole power distribution company for the southern sector is to make gains and serve Ghanaians well.
Mr Nsiah Asare revealed in an interview that ECG is over-staffed with several employees taking salary for no work done.
“ECG is over-staffed…a company that always makes losses and still has this huge number of emplyees cannot make gains…ECG needs a total overhaul to cut down some of their losses..,?” he questioned
He told host Okatakyie Afrifa-Mensah that ECG is recording system losses of up to 30% and surprisingly the staff lack the technical know-how to stop these losses.
“Ghana has the highest technical and commercial losses in Africa…this means that ECG claims to lose 30% of power supplied them so they lose at least 30% of revenue through technical and commercial losses and yet nothing is done about it…,” he alleged.
Mr Asare further said that the failure of the country to find solutions to the energy sector debts and the over-staffing of ECG are also part of the problems at the energy sector.
“Some of the debts are historical, for example some of them are as a result of the power agreements that the country signed in 2016 where we have had to pay for over-generation of gas and power…,” he added.
The failure of some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MMDAs), to pay the over $1.4 million debts owed ECG and the huge technical and commercial losses are part of the reasons government cannot pay debts owed IPPs.
