Minister Proposes Committee to Track Missing ECG Containers at Tema Port

Tema: Mr John Abdulai Jinapor, the Minister of Energy and Green Transition, has proposed the formation of a specialised committee to track the serial numbers of the Electricity of Ghana (ECG) containers that have gone missing at the Tema Port. Tracking the serial numbers would help to determine the final destination of each missing container and identify all parties involved in their disappearance, he said.According to Ghana News Agency, the work of the three-member committee forms part of a broader effort to unravel the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the 1,346 containers and to hold those responsible accountable. Discussing the matter on a television programme on Saturday, Mr Jinapor mentioned the discovery of 40 of the missing containers across four different locations, including aluminium smelting companies and warehouses.He noted that some foreign nationals, including Chinese and Indians, had been arrested in connection with the found containers, while investigations were ongoing. The minister expressed concern over the potential involvement of both Ghanaian and foreign nationals in the illicit activities.Stories being heard suggest various methods of diversion, including containers being cleared from the port but not reaching the ECG warehouses and instead ending up in private factories or being sold at suspiciously low prices through auctions. To address the problem, Mr Jinapor proposed the establishment of the three-member expert team, which would work alongside the ongoing National Intelligence Bureau (NIB)-led criminal investigations."The primary responsibility of the committee would be to meticulously track the serial numbers of the missing containers," he said. The team would analyse all relevant information detailing the arrival and receipt of the containers, with the support of national security."By tracing these serial numbers, the aim is to determine the final destination of each missing container and identify all parties involved in their disappearance," the minister said . "We can get a very good former custom official, some forensic guys. What they will do is that they will take all the manifests when the container arrived, how it was received with the support of national security.""They will trace them and get to know their last point of destination. I'm sure when we do that, we will get a lot of people into the net and the law will take its course."Mr Jinapor raised concerns over the auctioning of ECG's imported items, procured with the taxpayer's money, at very low prices without the apparent knowledge of the company's management. He suggested that such valuable items, particularly those with specific uses like electricity cables, should ideally be taken over by the state for purposes of rural electrification rather than being auctioned off to be potentially melted down.The minister emphasised the need for a structured payment plan with the Government to utilise the recovered and secured containers for ongoing electrification projects, potentially reducing the need for the award of new contracts. He affirmed the Government's commitment to resolving the issue and reforming the energy sector to prevent such incidents from recurring in the future. He is also seeking clarification from the Attorney General on certain legal aspects related to the ownership and autonomy of state-owned enterprises like ECG in such situations.