Speaking in an interview on Channel One TV’s The Point of View, Mr. Bawa said the debt was owed to BP, which at the time was the sole supplier of petroleum products to GOIL.

According to him, the company had struggled to meet payment deadlines for invoices, leading to a “ring-fenced” debt arrangement with the supplier.

“At the time I got there, if we were to take BP, there was a ring-fenced debt. Usually, invoices have a maturity date for payment. But GOIL was unable to pay on time. At that point, the debt stood at about $110 million owed to one company—BP,” he explained.

Mr. Bawa said the situation made GOIL uncompetitive at the pumps due to high premiums on petroleum products, especially during periods of rising fuel prices.

“BP was the only company supplying us. As and when we could pay for products, premiums were very high, which made us uncompetitive at the pumps. When prices went up, it became an issue,” he added.

He noted that the company has since taken steps to significantly reduce the debt burden.

“Thanks to a slightly improved exchange rate, we engaged our bankers and have been able to reduce the debt to about $30 million by settling the rest,” Mr. Bawa said.

He further indicated that GOIL has also been dealing with supplier challenges, outstanding bank obligations, and intermittent fuel shortages at some outlets, largely linked to the country’s recent economic difficulties.

According to him, GOIL supplements its supply with products from domestic refineries, particularly the Tema Oil Refinery and the Sentuo Oil Refinery, depending on prevailing market conditions.

Speaking in an interview on Channel One TV’s The Point of View, Mr. Bawa explained that the share of locally sourced products is limited by the country’s refining capacity.

“It will obviously not be more than 30 percent because the in-country capacity is not sufficient for us to source more. But at least it is not more than 30 percent,” he said.

Despite these limitations, he noted that sourcing petroleum products locally offers cost advantages over imports. “The products we get in the country are comparatively cheaper,” he added.

In a post on his Facebook page, Mr. Bawa noted that while certain Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) are calling for deeper cuts, they have yet to sell Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) at the National Petroleum Authority (NPA)-approved floor price of GHS 9.80 per litre in the current pricing window.

According to him, these OMCs are instead selling PMS at GHS 9.97 per litre, above the regulated floor price, raising questions about the validity of their claims.

“These are NPA-approved floor prices. If, as an OMC, you are calling for the opportunity to reduce prices further, it is reasonable to ask why you have not first reduced your PMS price to at least the floor of GHS 9.80,” he stated.

Mr. Bawa emphasised that advocating for further price reductions while selling above the approved floor undermines the credibility of such demands, urging industry players to align their pricing actions with their public statements.

The former Bongo MP was initially appointed to lead GNPC on January 16, 2025, replacing Joseph Dadzie. His reassignment to GOIL has sparked widespread interest.

Mr. Bawa confirmed the development in a Facebook post, stating that the reassignment takes immediate effect.

According to him, the move is part of President Mahama’s broader energy sector strategy.

Meanwhile, his successor at GNPC is yet to be announced.

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Below is Mr. Bawa’s post:

In a confirmation statement, the Executive Secretary said the appointment is in accordance with Article 195 (1) of the Constitution and Section 10 (2) of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation Act, 1983 (P.N.D.C.L.64).

However, the appointment is subject to the Constitutionally required advice of the Honourable Minister for Energy, provided in consultation with the Public Services Commission.

The statement also noted that Mr Bawa’s appointment takes immediate effect as of Friday, January 17, 2025.

Read the full statement below

His remarks follow the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission’s (PURC) announcement of a 3.02% rise in electricity tariffs and a 1.86% increase in water tariffs, effective October 1, 2024.

Mr Bawa highlighted how inflation and the depreciation of the cedi are affecting Ghanaians

Speaking on Adom FM’s morning show, Dwaso Nsem on Monday, he criticized the government’s inability to budget for such losses, citing constraints from the ongoing IMF program, which restricts subsidies.

“The increase in tariffs is just a reflection of the bigger problem in the country. I know someone who is battling with cancer and spends close to 10,000 cedis every month on medical bills, even though he is a pensioner. This is due to the depreciation of the cedi, as the medications are imported.

“The current state of the economy is impacting many Ghanaians, not just in the utility sector. Depending on the area you find yourself in, Ghanaians are suffering. The government has not budgeted to help the situation. If the government had made a budget allocation for the loss on utility, the increase could have been seen as a subsidy. However, the government is not allowed to provide subsidies under the current IMF program,” he said.

Mr Bawa also noted that, while the increment helps utilities, it further exposes the broader economic difficulties Ghanaians are enduring.

“From the angle of PURC and the utilities, it is a way of ensuring their survival. Even though we say our tariffs are supposed to be cost reflective, the utilities are not being adequately compensated for the services they provide. If the tariffs are not cost reflective, the value of their investments will decrease. So, for the utility side, it makes a lot of sense,” he explained.

Watch the video below:

Source: Adomonline

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He described its timing as inappropriate.

He made this known in an interview on Adom FM’s morning show, Dwaso Nsem on Wednesday.

Mr. Bawa clarified that, while they are not entirely opposed to the merger, the government has failed to provide the necessary policy details behind it.

“It’s not that we are against it, but we need to know the policy underpinning it,” he said.

He also pointed out that, the country is just weeks away from an election, making the timing of the bill problematic.

“We are left with a few weeks to the election,” Mr. Bawa noted, adding that there has been no consultation with stakeholders, which is a critical issue for them.

Mr. Bawa argued that the short timeframe and lack of consultation make the proposed merger impractical.

“Our argument is that the time is wrong, and the procedure is wrong as consultations have not been done” he said.

He therefore expressed skepticism about the government’s plan to list these entities on the Ghana Stock Exchange, suggesting it could be a tactic to enable politically exposed individuals to acquire state assets.

The government’s plan includes consolidating thermal plants under a Ghana Thermal Authority and hydro plants under a Ghana Hydro Authority, as outlined in a bill currently before Parliament.

But Mr. Bawa believes this consolidation would not benefit the Bui Power Authority.

Source: Adomonline.com | Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy

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Mr. Bawa highlighted the concerted efforts by the erstwhile John Dramani Mahama administration to address the power crisis.

Speaking in an interview on Citi TV on Tuesday, April 16, he stressed that the Mahama-led government prioritised resolving the issue and made substantial investments in the energy sector to mitigate the effects of the power outages.

The Mahama administration encountered significant criticism when Ghana experienced a period of power crisis, known as “dumsor,” during its tenure.

Despite the challenges, some NDC leaders have asserted that they managed to resolve the power crisis before the end of their term.

Mr. Bawa reiterated that the Mahama government successfully tackled the root causes of the power outages during its tenure.

He said specific issues such as generation capacity, fuel security, and unpaid accumulated legacy debts were effectively addressed by the government in 2015.

According to him, these measures implemented by the former president aimed to ensure a stable and reliable supply of electricity to meet the needs of the Ghanaian population.

“Essentially, by the close of 2015, the major issues that had to do with the power sector had been dealt with. When the NDC came, obviously these problems were still there waiting to strike again. Unfortunately, it reared its head in 2013, when we had a problem with the breached pipeline and that told us that we needed to do something about our fuel security properly. By the close of 2015, we had procured enough generation power to be able to deal with the immediate cause of “dumsor”.

“Generation was the immediate issue, that part by the close of 2015, actually had been dealt with. There was also a financial aspect of it which was dealt with, particularly just the end of 2015 and 2016. We were dealing with the debts and then by the close of 2015, we had also dealt with the fuel security issue because we had then brought on board Atuabo Gas Plant that was going to utilize our gas,” he said.

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Per the PURC orders, the ECG has until the close of tomorrow March, 27 to publish a load management timetable and other demands.

Already, the first order demanding that the ECG pays all power producers under the water cashfall mechanism expired yesterday, Monday 25th March.

Again, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has ordered the ECG to present to it a comprehensive report of its operations in relation to tariff revenue allocation, regulatory audit data and operational matters, among others by close of day April 2, 2024. 

But Edward Bawa says the management of ECG has shown total disrespect to Parliament and Ghanaians on the issues.

He is also confident that ECG will not comply with the PURC directives.

“ECG refused to appear before the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament. Just in line with how this government operates, ECG had the arrogance to look in the face of Parliament and refused to come.

“As a Minority, we have made our case… that was on Tuesday and on Wednesday, the House went on break. But some of us have said that when we come back to Parliament, we are going to cite ECG for contempt. You cannot look in the faces of the people’s representatives and say ‘to hell with you’.

“For Mahama to do what he is doing, it is because he is backed by very powerful people and unless we accept that there is a problem, we cannot address it. We have a very irresponsible government who has also appointed a very indisciplined, and to some extent a disrespectful management led by the board chairman Keli Gadzekpo and the Chief Executive Officer Dubik Mahama, who simply cannot care about the consumer as long as everyday they get whatever they want in life.”

Meanwhile, the Energy Minister, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh says he does not support the release of a load-shedding timetable.

In an interview with JoyNews, Mr. Opoku Prempeh said the demand for the timetable is equivalent to wishing evil for the country.

“Let those who want the timetable bring it. I don’t know of any timetable because the ECG has said it is not necessary. Why would someone just wish evil for the country?” he asked.

But his comments have been condemned by a section of Ghanaians who called into the Super Morning Show and insisted a timetable will help them better plan their lives and businesses.

“I live in Kasoa and we have had intermittent light off, we are connected to generator and it is also out of fuel, so what is the Minister saying? What do they take us for? Bring us a timetable so we can plan our lives around when we have light and when we don’t so at least we know what to do. I am really frustrated this morning,” the first caller said.

Another caller added that, “Yesterday, the lights were on throughout the day and around 6pm it went off, but within a few seconds it came back and then they took it again. Within about three hours it came back and you say you are not shedding light?”

“If I were the President, I would have fired him (Energy Minister), but African ministers and their presidents, they feel like they are monarchs,” he said.

The Energy Ministry says the Minister’s comments have been twisted by his accusers.

Elsewhere on X (formerly Twitter), many are livid over the Energy Minister’s bluff for paying consumers to produce their own load shedding timetable.

According to him, the energy sector is in debt and slowly deteriorating, as it cannot generate the requisite capacity needed to keep the lights on.

Speaking on JoyNews’ The Pulse on March 25, he said, “Let me state it without any shred of doubt that any government, whether it is another NPP government (God forbid), or it is John Mahama or another government coming into power in 2025, will walk straight into a power crisis.“

“The first reason is that the energy sector indebtedness is so frightening that even the IMF says that it is the single most dangerous sector that can crash our economy because of the level of debt.

“The second aspect of it is that because they were singing excess capacity, they have not added any generation into our mix. So, as we speak today, we have consumed almost all our capacity. Therefore, if we do not make a serious attempt to add capacity to our current capacity, we will run into capacity deficit,” he said.

The Bongo MP said that although the ruling government was aware of the generation deficit, they had constantly used their ability to keep the power on as a political tool. Therefore, they would not openly admit that there were challenges within the sector.

Over the past few months, pressure has been mounting on the Electricity Company of Ghana to release a schedule for the current power outages.

But on each occasion, the ECG has rejected these claims and attributed the load shedding to maintenance work or stated that during certain peak hours, the transformers were overloaded, resulting in load shedding.

However, the legislator insisted that this was sheer Public Relations (PR) gimmick to massage the situation and stressed that to understand the crisis in the energy sector, it is necessary to read the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission’s (PURC) validation report on the Energy Sector.

“They are so hypocritical, they are not truthful to the system. You see, they have run this particular sector, and this is just a microcosm of the bigger picture, they have run it based on PR rather than facts.

“I am saying that the truth of the matter, don’t take my word for it, take PURC for its word. PURC’s own orders that they have given to ECG is because of the fact that they have realised that the centrality of this problem is about cash flow,” he criticised.

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Our understanding from the Ghana Grid Company Limited was that there was a limited supply of gas to Tema occasioning the power supply gap of 550MW.

This obviously inconvenienced a lot of citizens and social media was awash with Ghanaians venting their frustrations on the handles.

Keen observers of the energy sector knew that this was a disaster waiting to happen since the non-operationalization of the Cash Waterfall Mechanism (CWM).

The Cash Waterfall Mechanism (CWM) was instituted to prevent the growth of the sector-wide indebtedness as government services what has come to be known as legacy debts in the energy sector.

A cash waterfall payment system is a method used to allocate and distribute cash flows from an investment or project (in this case the energy sector) among various stakeholders, following a predetermined hierarchy and set of rules.

A waterfall payment system allows debtors to pay higher-tiered creditors their full interest and principal first before lower-tiered creditors receive their own principal and interest payment.

Debtors usually structure this mechanism into tranches in order to prioritise and finance the loans with the highest debt obligations, principal and interest inclusive. The idea is that the most expensive debts should be serviced first.

This mechanism is part of a wider strategy to ensure equitable distribution of energy sector revenues to all stakeholders in the value chain.

In July 2017 the the CWM which had been introduced by the NDC government in late 2016 was again approved for implementation by the New NPP government.

This was to ensure an equitable and transparent distribution of energy sector revenues amongst all stakeholders in the sector’s value chain. The CWM became effective for companies and entities servicing more than one loan.

After initially proving to be relatively effective in controlling the sector’s debt, the mechanism is increasingly becoming unavailing, as it is unable to pay for 80 per cent of power sold to ECG. The CWM pays for only 20 per cent of delivered energy invoices.

=The remaining 80 per cent keeps adding to the arrears which has resulted in ECG owing the IPPs alone about $2 billion. The same can be said about the accumulation of debt as a result of fuel used by the power generators and the transmission of same.

The latest effect of the non-functioning of the Cash Waterfall Mechanism is what was experienced on Thursday, when about 30 per cent of more of ECG customers had no lights.

The Ghana Grid Company (Gridco) in a statement stated “The Ghana Grid Company Ltd (GRIDCo), the ‘operator’ of the National Interconnected Transmission System (NITS) informs the general public that due to limited gas supply supply to Tema. There will be a supply gap of 550MW at peak time. This will affect power supply to customers in some parts of the country,”

As part of the Gas Transportation Agreement between the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the West Africa Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) to transport gas from Aboadze to power plants in Tema, WAPCo demanded that the government of Ghana put up a guarantee against failure by ECG to pay for gas transportation.

This was because WAPCo was wary of the financial challenges of the power off-taker and were thus unsure they will be paid anytime ECG was invoiced.

Government elected the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to serve as the guarantor. It was therefore not surprising that when ECG defaulted in its payments WAPCo wrote letters to the guarantor for payment.

GNPC subsequently wrote a series of letters to ECG regarding the non-payment of transportation invoices to the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo).

In these letters, GNPC informed ECG about the intention of WAPCo to suspend gas transportation services on October 17, 2023, if the minimum expected payment of $8.31 million was not paid by the close of business on October 17, 2023.

The total cumulative outstanding invoices currently stand at US$17.13 million after GNPC paid an amount of $2.00 million. All attempts to get ECG to make the required minimum payments have been unsuccessful. So yesterday WAPCo carried out their threat and curtailed the flow of gas from the Western Region to Tema hence the limited supply of gas to the Tema enclave causing a supply gap of 550MW at peak time.

Government must as a matter of urgency intervene as the shareholder of  ECG and make the minimum expected payment of $8.31 million so that Ghanaians would not have to sleep in darkness again. In the medium to long term, government must make arrangements to pay off the total indebtedness of ECG to WAPCo and immediately re-institute the Cash Waterfall Mechanism.

This is because very soon the IPPs will also be on the neck of ECG for their accumulated arrears and government must be ready to intervene to avoid DUMSOR. The time to act is now.

******

The writer is the Bongo MP and a member of the Mines and Energy Committee.

According to Mr Bawa, the Attorney General’s opinion on the matter was issued prematurely since the police have not thoroughly completed investigations into the allegations contained in the report.

The Attorney-General’s Office has in a document advising the police concluded that Prof Frimpong-Boateng’s allegations in his report on illegal mining activities in the country are empty and do not have evidence to prosecute persons named in it to have offended the laws.

The A-G’s advice to the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service said it cannot recommend prosecution of any of the persons named in the report.

Already, the Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, in April 2023, advised that little attention be given to the 36-page document written by Prof Frimpong Boateng entitled “Report on the work of IMCIM so far and the way forward”.

Mr Dame noted that the findings in the former Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining’s report were his opinion and must be investigated to justify their authenticity.

Reacting to these happenings, Mr Bawa, the lawmaker for Bongo constituency questioned the timing of the Attorney General’s actions, noting that the office issued an opinion before requesting further investigation.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he suggested that the publication by Mr Dame’s outfit is an attempt to create gaps in the investigation to make it non-prosecutable in order to protect government officials.

“For him to hurriedly issue an opinion and then ask that they continue the investigation, I just feel that it was premature, it was an attempt to create gaps in the investigation such that it is not prosecutable.

And to a very large extent, the persons involved in this were too close to the extent that it was difficult to look into their eyes and tell them ‘Guy what you did is wrong,’” he said.

During the discussion, Bawa also raised concerns about the government’s commitment to addressing the issues outlined in the report.

He claimed that the government had, in his view, intentionally stalled action on the report.

“The government was not committed to ever working on that report,” he asserted. “They had seen it and had decided to, as usual, find one reason or the other to shelve it or cover it up.”

On April 20, the former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, named some top government officials as being complicit in the illegal mining menace.

The renowned heart surgeon indicated that the rot goes as high as the seat of government, the Jubilee House.

Prof. Frimpong Boateng stressed that the allegations of some 500 missing excavators seized from illegal miners in 2020 were fabrications of some persons in the government to get him out of the way.

Since his revelation, there has been an increase in calls for accountability from both government officials and individuals involved in illegal mining activities.

Mr Bawa’s comments add to the growing controversy surrounding the handling of the report on illegal mining, as it suggested a lack of urgency and transparency in addressing the alleged wrongdoing and environmental damage caused by illegal mining operations.

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His comment follows a three-day ultimatum issued by the ECG to the Parliamentary Service and other state institutions to settle their indebtedness or risk being disconnected from the national grid.

Speaking on JoyNews Prime, on Friday, in reaction to the ECG’s notice, Mr Bawa said “government agencies and Ministries are the worst culprits when it comes to defaulting in payment for electricity services.”

“In fact, I will be very happy if tomorrow ECG disconnects Parliament,” he stated.

The Bongo MP reiterated that government agencies in the country must be put on the pre-paid meter to avoid such indebtedness.

“Why would UPSA not pay for using power? Why would the Ministry of Communications not pay?

“I understand for example maybe if you are to go to a hospital, I expect that maybe the theatres and other things should not be on pre-paid but they should be on credit meters. However, what explanation will you give for a Doctors flat being on a credit meter?” he quizzed  

He said as a result of this refusal to pay for services rendered by the ECG, the Ministry of Energy set an example of subscribing to the pre-paid meter “so when they go and buy power and the power is exhausted, they go off.”

The ECG on Friday served disconnection notices to some institutions which have refused to pay for power consumed.

According to the power distribution company, the affected institutions owe it an amount close to GH¢70million and have failed to settle their debt despite several reminders.

The ECG stated that it will not spare any institution which fails to meet the deadline.

The following are the debts owed by some of the defaulting institutions:

Ministry of Communication owes – GH¢5,080,752.37

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – GH¢558,014.13

Internal Audit Agency – GH¢545,740.68

Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence – GH¢208,318.50

Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) – GH¢277,300.32

National Information Technology Agency (NITA) – GH¢1,543,113.68

University of Professional Studies (UPSA) – GH¢1,611,403.21

Mr Bawa, therefore, commended ECG for its work in disconnecting power at some public institutions over their indebtedness. He, however, stated that the exercise is long overdue.

This comes following a statement made by the 1st Deputy Speaker to engage himself in any voting proceedings on the E-levy while presiding as the Speaker.

However, while speaking on JoyNews’ AM show, Mr. Bawa responded to the 1st Deputy Speaker’s statement, saying he will be matched squarely and resisted if he attempts to vote on the e-levy as the presiding Speaker.

“You can take my words to the bank; he will be matched squarely on that; he will be resisted. That you can take to the bank, it is an assurance I am giving you,” he stated.

According to him, there are many other means governments can manage the economy without introducing more taxes to generate revenue, like using resources judiciously.

“The issue of making resources available for the government for development must not necessarily be as a result of trying to look for more money. You can also look at cutting down expenditure,” he said.

He said the Minority group has proposed various ways the economic crises in the country can be managed by the government.

“We have given government areas that we can look out to cut the expenditure and still be able to make that 6.9 billion cedi. Unless the government is not telling us the truth then we have a challenge,” he revealed.

The government has proposed an electronic levy of 1.75% when it presented its fiscal policy to the people’s representatives.

But, the proposal has suffered a public backlash from the Minority group in Parliament and various opinion groups.

Member of Parliament (MP) for Bongo constituency, Edward Bawa, has defended the Minority’s rush to the Speaker’s podium during proceedings on Monday.

According to him, it was to stop illegality from being perpetuated in the House as First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu presided.

Mr Bawa noted the action though regrettable was a step in the right direction.

“We are no longer in the 7th parliament. Now we have 137 vs 137 + 1 independent candidate so we must let the rules and regulations work and every Ghanaian must resist any illegality anywhere,” he noted.

His comment comes on the back of a brawl that broke out on Monday night during a head count to consider the controversial E-levy Bill under a certificate of urgency.

The Minority MPs attempted to stop Mr Osei Owusu, who was presiding over the House, from vacating his seat to participate in the voting process.

Infuriated by this action, the Majority side clashed with the Minority at the Speaker’s table during which Yagaba-Kubori  MP, Mustapha Ussif got injured.

“Parliament was charged emotionally because Joe Wise is in charge of discipline so what happens if he is not disciplined? So the motivation was to go and make him aware what he did was not right then we heard loud voices and that was when our colleagues rushed to the podium,” he said on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen.

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Meanwhile, Mr Bawa had earlier indicated the Minority will have issues with the Bekwai MP presiding over sittings in the absence of Speaker Bagbin.

This follows a controversial declaration by Mr Osei-Owusu that assuming the Speaker’s chair does not take away the fact that he’s an MP, and that he is not the Speaker.

That remark and the subsequent ruling against a motion by the Minority to have the approval of the 2022 budget rescinded, degenerated proceedings of the House into chaos and near fisticuffs on December 2.

Play the audio above:

This follows a controversial declaration by Mr Osei-Owusu that assuming the Speaker’s chair does not take away the fact that he’s a Member of Parliament (MP) and that he is not the Speaker.

That remark and the subsequent ruling against a motion by the Minority to have the approval of the 2022 budget rescinded, degenerated proceedings of the House into chaos and near fisticuffs which led to the abrupt end of Thursday’s sitting.

Touching on the issue, the MP for Bongo, Edward Bawa, said Mr Osei-Owusu is not fit to occupy the Speaker’s chair due to his posturing.

In an interview with JoyNews’ parliamentary correspondent, Kwesi Parker-Wilson, the Bongo MP said he will be sad to see Mr Osei-Owusu presiding over sittings going forward.

“If the person who is supposed to hold the forum says I am not the person, it tells us that whoever comes there in the form and shape of Joseph Osei- Owusu is an imposter and so we will not be comfortable with that. We are only holding him to his own words that he is not the Speaker…Since that particular unfortunate incident, he himself has not had the courage to come and preside over any plenary.

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“I think Ghanaians should not be comfortable with a person they have entrusted with power and he says no I’m not the one who is supposed to have that power. There must be a willingness on your side to act in a particular position before the State can entrust that room for you. If he comes to preside over sittings, it will be a betrayal of his own position,” he told Kwesi Parker Wilson.

The Bongo MP also urged the House not to relent in its quest to probe the alleged impersonation of the Dome- Kwabenya MP, Sarah Adwoa Safo.

“I think that it is only proper that Parliament takes this important because assuming that these suspicions are true and anything to go by, it tells us that the integrity of Parliament has been compromised. I think that Parliament should be interested in conducting an investigation into the matter,” he said.