Minister for Energy and Green Transmission, Dr John Abdulai Jinapor, has cautioned engineers and managers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to remain professional and avoid politicising their roles in the energy sector.
Speaking at a meeting with regional and district managers as well as engineers in the Ashanti Region, Dr Jinapor stressed that ECG workers owe their loyalty to the nation rather than any political party.
He expressed concern over what he described as deliberate negligence by some engineers, saying such actions had damaged the image of the energy sector and contributed to unstable power supply across the country.
“Your job is that of an engineer and not a politician. If you want to be a politician, then you should exit,” he stated.
The Minister noted that persistent power outages not only attract criticism towards the government but also result in revenue losses for ECG due to paid but unused electricity.
Dr Jinapor urged district managers and engineers to improve service delivery, reminding them that they represent the public image of ECG and would be held accountable for failures in providing safe, stable, and quality electricity.
As part of efforts to improve efficiency, he announced plans to establish a modern command-and-control centre under the Ministry of Energy and the Energy Commission to monitor service delivery and track transformers in real time.
He also revealed that ECG managers would receive dedicated mobile phones connected to the monitoring system to ensure faster response to faults reported by the public through a short code and hotline.
Additionally, the Ministry plans to provide electric motorcycles and pickup trucks to ECG districts to strengthen operational efficiency.
Dr Jinapor further disclosed that ongoing energy projects in Kumasi are expected to add over 1,000 megawatts of power generation capacity to support the region’s growing population.
He finally urged all ECG staff to work diligently and warned against any attempt to sabotage the country’s power distribution system.