A former board member of the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC), Dr Nii Darko Asante, has placed the blame for the failure of the Cash Waterfall Mechanism (CWM) squarely on the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On . October 21, he expressed frustration over ECG\u2019s role in undermining the financial distribution framework\u00a0designed to ensure fairness in Ghana\u2019s energy sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat you\u2019re observing was expected to happen from day one when the Cash Waterfall was set up. It\u2019s not a surprise that matters got worse over time,\u201d Dr. Asante said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He stated that ECG had long been a problematic player in the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He explained that historically, the company has prioritised its own revenue needs, often at the expense of other critical sector players like\u00a0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cECG has short-changed the sector in terms of revenue for years. They collect from consumers, take what they want, and then decide who gets what\u2019s left. If they\u2019re supposed to collect 100 cedis, and their costs are 20 cedis but they only collect 40, they still keep the full 20 cedis,\u201d Dr. Asante explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis leaves the rest of the sector with only 20 cedis to share instead of the 80 cedis that should have been available.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Dr. Asante, the Cash Waterfall Mechanism (CWM) was intended to correct these imbalances by ensuring that whatever ECG collected was fairly distributed according to predefined ratios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe CWM brought visibility to how the insufficient funds were being shared,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, this transparency has not prevented the sector from struggling due to ECG\u2019s consistent failure to collect sufficient revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Asante also highlighted how ECG\u2019s reported revenue often does not reflect actual cash received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnyone who has done basic accounting will recognise that what is reported in the financial statements does not always reflect cash collected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The CWM was looking purely at actual revenue accrued \u2014 cash received into ECG accounts, not just what was billed or claimed to be collected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joining Dr. Asante on the show, Dr. Steve Manteaw, Co-chair of the Ghana Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), voiced his concerns about ECG excluding a significant portion of its revenue from the CWM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt surprises me that despite the substantial jump in revenue, about 50% of the funds generated are kept outside the CWM,\u201d he told the host, Evans Mensah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Manteaw stated that excluding such a large percentage of ECG\u2019s revenue could severely damage the credibility of the Cash Waterfall Mechanism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis exclusion creates serious credibility issues for the energy sector\u2019s financial recovery, especially since the CWM was designed to ensure fair distribution of funds among sector players.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He further stressed that ECG\u2019s actions could undermine efforts to stabilise the sector\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf about half of their revenue is kept out of the mechanism, it makes it difficult for any real progress to be made in addressing the financial challenges of the energy sector,\u201d Dr Manteaw added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Asante acknowledged that ECG\u2019s complaints about the funds being insufficient for their operations were valid but added that the situation was no different for other players in the energy sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll hear ECG complaining that it\u2019s not enough for them to run their distribution \u2014 and that\u2019s true. But what about GridCo? What about the generation companies? Nobody has enough money to run the system,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both experts concluded that while the Cash Waterfall Mechanism was a step in the right direction, its effectiveness has been undermined by ECG\u2019s actions and the continued exclusion of significant revenue streams from the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They called for urgent reforms to ensure fair distribution and accountability across the energy sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A former board member of the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC), Dr Nii Darko Asante, has placed the blame for the failure of the Cash Waterfall Mechanism (CWM) squarely on the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG). On . October 21, he expressed frustration over ECG\u2019s role in undermining the financial distribution framework\u00a0designed to ensure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,41],"tags":[2803,156,329],"class_list":["post-8608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-general-news","tag-cash-water-falls-mechanisms","tag-ecg","tag-purc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8611,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8608\/revisions\/8611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}