Workers at the Ghanaian electricity grid company, GRIDCo, have threatened to cause another ‘damsall’ at Ghana’s electricity distribution company, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), this Christmas if the company’s financial situation does not improve immediately. . Difficulties facing the company.
According to them, GRIDCo does not appear to be in a good financial position as the cash waterfall mechanism is not working, which has caused significant damage to the company’s operations and if a solution is not found soon. Service delivery to customers may be affected. .
“The main reason for the deteriorating cash flow situation is that the cash waterfall mechanism used as a method of payment to industry players within the industry is not functioning and is suspected to have been abolished.” they said.
In a letter signed by the National President of the Senior Staff Association, Wisdom Kojo Adenyo and addressed to the Minister of Energy, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of GRIDCo, the witnesses said: JoyNews Energy Desk, Staff have accused ECG of refusing to pay them in full for services provided by the company.
They explained that GRIDCo bills its major customer ECG in excess of GH₵100 million each month, of which only about 18% to 25% is paid, and in an irregular manner. It is said that it is a rule.
“The majority of the revenue is on our books and we have no plans to redeem it. This situation makes it difficult to pay suppliers and procure the necessary tools, materials and spare parts, all of which It is having a negative impact on business,” they wrote.
GRIDCo staff say the company’s ongoing cash flow challenges are not only impacting its operations, but also its customer service delivery and staff welfare.
It threatens to return to the era of intermittent power outages that characterized the country several years ago.
“Our staff group believes that if the cash waterfall mechanism is not immediately restored or other financial support provided to GRIDCo, it will not be possible to ensure smooth power supply, especially this Christmas season and in the future. I would like to warn you that you cannot.”
What JoyNews’ Energy Desk knows
According to our sources, ECG has given more than $30 million to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), more than $30 million to the Volta River Authority (VRA), more than $50 million to Ghana Gas, more than $20 million to GRIDCo; It says it owes money to independent power producers (IPPs). Over $60 million. Our sources tell us that the VRA is currently selling electricity to help Togo and Benin survive. This explains why some Ghanaians have been experiencing power outages recently.
We understand that Ghana Gas, VRA and GRIDCo (all state-owned companies) have been unable to pay their vendors and this is slowly crippling the operations of these companies. These three men are in deep crisis, and in their own words, this is “unprecedented.”
According to our sources, if nothing changes, Ghana Gas may not be able to pay Tullow for the raw gas it provides, which is why Tullow has decided to stop supplying gas to Ghana Gas. It is said that there is a possibility. If this happens, there will definitely be a shortage of power generation, which will reduce the amount of power that the ECG can supply to consumers, resulting in power outages.
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