There are so many competing interests in the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), as members of staff form private companies at will and award contracts to such companies, thereby diverting funds, the committee that investigated the fire outbreak at an ECG warehouse in Kumasi has found.

In acquiring the warehouse that was supposed to be holding 21,000 prepaid meters valued at US$2.8million, ECG’s Directorate of Estates and Premises was sidelined -- and so the warehouse was neither insured nor did it have appropriate security, the committee indicated.

“We also identified that there was so much mandate duplication in ECG. There was so much interference in the work of the various directorates in ECG,” Chairman of the Committee, Charles Nii Adama Akrong, told Power Minister Dr. Kwabena Donkor at the report’s presentation.

“We also realised, Mr. Minister, that there are people in ECG with so many competing interests. They have formed companies and contracts have been awarded to them. We recommended that the ECG management take administrative sanctions against some of these officers. They clearly violate your own code of ethics.”

The name of Mr. David Asamoah, Project Manager of the Ghana Energy Development and Access Project (GEDAP II), featured prominently in the committee’s report; accusing him of bringing in a company suspected to be owned by him and other ECG staff-members, which company (New Dawn Ltd.) was made to look like it had a contract with the ECG and so took GH?32,000 in the warehouse’s acquisition.

“ECG made a payment of GH?54,000 to New Dawn, and then New Dawn also made a payment of GH?18,000 to the owners of the premises. So Mr. Asamoah and a so-called owner of New Dawn pocketed GH?32,000,” Chairman of the committee Charles Nii Adama Akrong told Dr. Donkor

The committee established that burning the warehouse was the work of an arsonist, and so recommended that the appropriate security agencies take up the matter.

The committee indicated that the first consignment of the meters, numbering about 1000, was actually removed from the warehouse before the fire outbreak occurred on December 21, 2014 at the ECG-rented warehouse at Oduom Bebre in the Ashanti Region.

“Mr. Asamoah said the first consignment of meters went to the warehouse on November 2, 2014, but we felt that the meters could not have moved into the warehouse on that date. You see, the impression they created was that the warehouse was ready before the meters moved in. But we were told by the Asukwa District Manager of ECG that he, together with Mr. Asamoah and Engineer Aholu, visited the warehouse on November 18 and the room was bare,” the Chairman of the Committee said.

“When we talked to Mr. Asamoah, because everything was done without recourse to the appropriate directorate, the warehouse did not fit into ECG’s own policy for acquisition of warehouses; no security, nothing,” the committee said.

“We also realised that in wiring the warehouse Mr. Asamoah procured the services of unlincenced technicians. This was supposed to have been supervised by an engineer of ECG, Mr. Aholu. Mr. Minister, I can assure you that nothing was done. He did not supervise, and the work was poorly, poorly done.”

Power Minister Dr. Kwabena Donkor thanked the committee for doing a “professional” and “nationalistic”, and assured that the report will be forwarded to the appropriate security agencies for further investigations.

“We are determined to prosecute this agenda to its logical conclusion,” the minister said, and also indicated that the prepaid metering project that was foiled by the fire outbreak will continue.

“The nation has not just lost US$2.8million through this fire, but the opportunity cost of the money is even higher. The project that would have generated a better cash-flow for ECG has been short-circuited. But the ministry wants to assure this nation that the project will continue -- and for the culprits, when they are found, the laws of the land will be applied without fear or favour,” he said.

“I want to state without any apology that this is a good example of how not to manage a project. ECG as an entity stands indicted for unprofessional project management, and I believe internally the company will take steps to avoid a recurrence. The internal committee set up by ECG when this fire occurred was a waste of public time; the outcome of their work is nothing to write home about. So there is a lot of soul-searching that must take place at the ECG head office.”