Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, the former Board Chairman of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), has fired back at Dr Charles Wereko-Brobbey, a former Chief Executive of the Volta River Authority (VRA).
Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby called out the now Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, to account for the losses at the ECG during his tenure as the Board Chairman.
According to Charles Wereko-Brobby, Afenyo Markin has no moral right to criticise the government over its implementation of the GH¢ 1 fuel levy until he accounts for the losses incurred under the ECG during his tenure in 2023 and 2024.
Speaking on TV3, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby detailed, “The only thing I’ll ask the Minority Leader is that he should account for his stewardship of ECG in 2023, 2024. If he is able to account for the huge losses that ECG incurred under his stewardship, we may begin to listen to him”.
“The irresponsible management of ECG, which has brought in tremendous debts over the last two years of 2023 and 2024, that mismanagement should not be charged to the tariffs, but it should be charged to those who are responsible for mismanaging ECG and superintending over ECG over the last two years.
We know who was superintending over ECG, who are now pretending to let us know what the right thing is to do. If you want to know who superintended over ECG, I think you’d better go and find out,” he continued.
He further added, “The Minority in Parliament should shut up because the problems we are facing are largely due to the Minority’s failure to act or act irresponsibly when they were in government.
“All that is happening in Parliament is an attempt to try and really instigate election 2024 and try to give the impression that everything that is being done successfully under Mahama either started from NPP or was due to some things that we are not convinced about,” he expressed.
However, responding, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobbey comments, Afenyo Markin described them as misleading and factually inaccurate to attribute ECG’s financial challenges to his leadership.
In a statement issued by Afenyo Markin, he stated, “First, it must be clearly stated that I was not the Chairman of the ECG Board in 2023, as Dr. Wereko-Brobbey suggested. I was appointed by His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on 16th July 2024, and officially sworn in as Board Chairman of ECG on 17th July 2024.
The first board meeting I presided over was on 31st July, 2024, and my tenure lasted approximately six months, ending in January 2025. As such, any attempt to link my leadership to events or decisions prior to that time—or to attribute ECG’s financial challenges in 2023 or early 2024 to my leadership—is misleading. Dr. Wereko-Brobbey’s claim that I must account for ECG’s “huge losses” in 2023 and 2024 is therefore, respectfully, misleading, unsupported, and factually inaccurate. Since assuming the role of Board Chairman, I led several reforms aimed at streamlining ECG’s operations and reducing losses”.
He added, “At my very first board meeting, as the minutes would reflect, I led the Board to implement a major policy shift in ECG’s approach to procurement and contract management. For years, ECG operated under a system where vendors delivering items to the ports would hand over the Bill of Lading to ECG without rigorous tracking or validation of the items. This resulted in lapses in oversight, exposing ECG to substantial financial risk.
I immediately abolished this outdated model and replaced it with a transparent, accountable procurement system where payment is made only after verified delivery of goods at ECG’s own facilities. This reform saved the Company significant costs and was a key part of my broader strategy for restructuring and accountability.
Secondly, I directed Management to vigorously pursue the Loss Reduction Programme introduced by former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. This initiative was aimed at tackling the systemic revenue losses plaguing ECG—particularly those arising from obsolete and malfunctioning meters. Many of ECG’s installed meters had expired, leading to widespread inaccuracies and inefficiencies in billing. In addition, many communities were still without prepaid metering systems.
As Board Chair, I prioritised the modernisation of ECG’s metering infrastructure, expanding prepaid metering coverage and closing the loopholes that enabled non-technical losses. These were interventions designed to improve revenue efficiency”.
He concluded, saying, “I welcome dissenting views, but same must be grounded in verifiable facts. Your comments are unfortunate and do not reflect the spirit of constructive national discourse. If you possess evidence to substantiate your claims, I challenge you to present it publicly”.
