Accra: A recent report by the Auditor General has uncovered gross financial infractions at the nation's power distributor, the Electricity Company of Ghana Limited (ECG).
According to Ghana Web, the report, which covered the company's finances for the 2023 financial year, showed that the then management of the company spent millions on 13 expenditure items without the requisite approval of its board. Eleven of the expenditure items were listed by the Ranking Member of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, Samuel Atta Mills, at a recent sitting of the committee on the report, which showed that the company overspent its budget by almost GHS170 million without the approval of its board.
For some of the items, the company overspent its budget by about GHS60 million. Below is a breakdown of some of the items: Foreign training was budgeted at GHS31 million, but the actual spending reached GHS91 million. Cleaning expenses saw a budgeted amount of GHS2.8 million, with actual spending hitting GHS10.4 million. Honorarium expenses were budgeted at GHS3.8 million but ended up at GHS4.6 million. Hotel expenses exceeded the budgeted GHS9.3 million, with actual spending of GHS12.2 million. Staff fuel, communication expenses, consultancy, industrial relations, stakeholder expenses, publicity, and professional fees and subscriptions also saw significant overspending against their budgeted amounts.