The former Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Samuel Dubik Mahama, says under-declaration of revenues is not a criminal offence.

As such, he sees no issue with the recent report suggesting that ECG had failed to account for millions of generated revenue.

Defending his tenure at the company, he told JoyNews’ Isaac Kofi Agyei on The Pulse on Thursday, January 16, that “Under-declaration is not a criminal offence.”

He explained that the discrepancies arose because the company needed to pay salaries and other expenses before remitting the revenue to the state.

“Let’s look at the salary bill of ECG. Let’s consider how much ECG needs to keep the lights on in your districts, including maintenance on the lines. Where do you expect ECG to get that money from if ECG gives all the money it receives away?” he argued.

Mr Mahama further attributed the under-declaration to various factors, including foreign exchange volatility, where the US dollar's value increases the cost of the cedi.

According to the 2025 Ghana Energy Sector Recovery Programme (GESRP) report, ECG had under-declared a total of GH₵490 million between October and December 2023.

Read also: GH₵490m unaccounted for by ECG in three months – Audit report