The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has temporarily assumed operations as Ghana’s power distribution company in Ghana’s southern zone after Power Distribution Service’s (PDS) concession agreement was suspended.
The Energy Commission released a statement announcing its appointment of ECG on an interim basis because the agreement between Ghana and PDS had become “impaired.”
The commission noted in the statement that the demand guarantees submitted by PDS to ECG have been “disavowed”
The commission has directed PDS to facilitate an easy transition.
“In consequence of the above, PDS is to facilitate and provide ECG with the needed access to all billing systems, metering operations, payment accounts required for the effective operation of the retail sales licence.”
The government in a statement on Tuesday announced that PDS’ concession agreement was suspended after the government discovered some breaches in the company’s obligation in the provision of payment securities.
PDS responded to the government’s statement saying it had always acted in good faith and “will continue to act in good faith at all times.”
PDS officially took over from the ECG in February 2019 after winning the bid to run the power distribution service.
PDS was expected to turnaround the operations of ECG and make it more efficient and profitable.
Possible fraud
The Minister for Energy John Peter Amewu has said investigations conducted by the government has established that a document that was presented by PDS as a guarantee for the takeover of the ECG was forged.
Though the document indicated that a company in Qatar had guaranteed for PDS, the minister said the management of the Qatari company told the government it had no knowledge of the document.
Mr. Amewu assured that the government will prosecute anyone found to have engaged in the fraudulent act.