Bawumia slams ECG over revenue collection sabotage

Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has expressed worry over the action of some officials of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to thwart the government’s attempts to digitalize revenue collection.

According to Dr. Bawumia, “Every month, they simply maintained it at GHC450 million.” I thus indicated that we needed to deploy a team to digitalize the Electricity Company of Ghana’s new collection. As a result, we sent a team and started the digitalization process’’.

The flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who said when speaking at the 14th Commonwealth Regional Conference for Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Accra, noted that certain ECG IT unit employees had installed ransomware to stop the system from functioning correctly.

Dr. Bawumia said that the ransomware caused the system to crash and that national security had to step in to identify the employees responsible for the damage.

‘’Can you believe that system employees installed ransomware throughout the entire system to ruin it? And that’s when the system fell apart. In the end, we had to call in national security to determine that some employees of the IT department were responsible’’ Dr. Bawumia noted.

He continued ‘’And we located the machine on which the ransomware had been introduced into the network. Restoring the system takes some time. To make this work at all, they demanded a ransom. Is that even possible to imagine?’’.

He added ‘’So, they were taken into custody. We also digitalized the system, restored it, and said that Ghana would no longer accept cash payments for electricity. You solely use electronic bank transfers and mobile money to make payments. That is presently the situation. Is it not astonishing that monthly receipts have increased to more than one billion cedis from GHC 450 million?’’.

The Vice President further urged African nations to unite in a concerted effort to disrupt the corruption value chain, aiming to combat poverty and underdevelopment across the continent.

He emphasized that by leveraging digital platforms and systems, African nations could effectively track, trace, and disrupt the networks facilitating corruption and illicit financial flows.

Highlighting the multifaceted nature of corruption, Dr. Bawumia identified three pressing issues: bribery, revenue leakage, and the intricate networks that sustain corrupt activities.

The Vice President further noted that by digitizing processes such as passport applications, revenue management, and public service delivery, Ghana witnessed a significant reduction in bribery and revenue leakage.

Dr. Bawumia remarked. "Through the integration of public sector databases and the use of biometric identification, we have successfully eliminated ghost workers and streamlined government services."

The Vice President emphasized the adoption of blockchain technology to enhance transparency and accountability across government operations, aiming to make Ghana the first blockchain-powered government in Africa.

In conclusion, Dr. Bawumia reiterated the importance of collective action in the fight against corruption, and also called upon African nations to embrace digitalization, invest in digital forensics, and collaborate closely to disrupt the corruption value chain effectively.