Dr John Abdulai Jinapor, the Minister of Energy and Green Transmission, has cautioned engineers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Limited to avoid politicising their job. 

He noted that all engineers working under the ECG and the Energy Sector owed their allegiance to the country, not to any political party. 

Dr Jinapor said this during a meeting with four regional managers, 21 district managers, and ECG engineers operating in the Ashanti Region.  

He noted that the company’s inability to stabilise and deliver safe, high-quality power to citizens, due to what he described as deliberate negligence by some engineers, had dragged the energy sector into disrepute. 

“Your job is that of an engineer and not a politician. You cannot be a politician. That’s why I say if you want to be a politician, you exit,” the Minister reminded them. 

He stressed that his duty was to ensure the discipline, dedication, and commitment of all staff working in the Energy Sector to provide quality, safe, and stable power to every citizen. 

According to Dr Jinapor, aside from the widespread criticism directed at the government during periods of frequent power outages, the ECG also suffered revenue losses from power that was paid for but remained unused. 

Aside from the engineers, Dr Jinapor said all ECG managers, particularly the district managers, needed to up their game to ensure that the right thing was done in the power distribution. 

“You are the face of the ECG. If the managers don’t work well, it tarnishes the image of the company,” he said. 

Dr Jinapor disclosed that a full command-and-control centre was being set up under the auspices of the Energy Ministry and the Energy Commission.  

This, he explained, was a strategic mechanism to use modern technology to track service delivery to citizens. 

Additionally, all managers will be given new phones with a dedicated contact number linked to the systems being set up. 

Dr Jinapor stressed that the phones were meant to ensure that managers received reports on time and responded to them on time. 

“The main issue is the time of response. The centre is not just for updates, it’s also to track transformers as well,” he said. 

The Minister said a short code and a number linked to the system will be made available to citizens to report power situations to the authorities. 

Furthermore, he indicated that a number of electric motorcycles and pickup trucks will be distributed to ECG districts to facilitate their operations. 

According to him, the Ministry of Energy was deliberately equipping the ECG with the necessary tools to deliver better services to the citizens. 

Dr Jinapor said the managers and engineers would be held accountable for every failure to provide a quality, safe and stable power supply in the region and the country. 

He observed that various projects were being carried out by the energy sector players to increase the energy generation capacity in the region as the population grew. 

“Very soon we’re going to have over 1000 MW situated here in Kumasi, a strategic location,” he said. 

Dr Jinapor therefore implored the workers of the ECG to give their best to the sector and cautioned them not to attempt to sabotage the system.