The Minority in Parliament has criticised the directive for the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), Ing. Mark Awuah Baah, to step aside, describing the move as cosmetic and unlikely to resolve the country’s ongoing power challenges.
Addressing the press on Tuesday, April 28, Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Energy Committee, Collins Adomako Mensah, argued that recent leadership changes in the power sector will not resolve the deep-rooted issues affecting electricity supply, urging the prioritisation of proactive measures.
“The decision to ask the GRIDCo CEO to step aside and to reshuffle ECG’s Ashanti Regional leadership may generate headlines. It will not generate electricity,” he stated.
According to him, the current situation reflects what he described as political management of a crisis rather than genuine accountability, accusing the government of reacting to challenges it failed to anticipate.
“What Ghana is witnessing is not accountability; it is the political management and embarrassment by an administration caught off guard by the consequences of its own inactions,” he added.
Adomako Mensah further defended the embattled GRIDCo CEO, insisting that the operational and financial difficulties within the power sector predate his tenure and stem from broader systemic challenges, citing chronic underfunding, unsettled Independent Power Producer (IPP) obligations, and deferred maintenance.
“To hold him publicly accountable while shielding the policy architects of this situation is not justice; it is deflection dressed up as decisive leadership,” he stressed.
He also raised concerns about the maintenance of critical national infrastructure, particularly in the wake of the recent fire outbreak at the Akosombo Power Control Centre, arguing that lapses in safety protocols and maintenance must be addressed at the policy level.
“We do not oppose investigation. Any inquiry into events at critical national infrastructure must be thorough and transparent,” he noted.
His comments come amid a directive by the Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Abdulai Jinapor, for the GRIDCo Chief Executive, Ing. Mark Awuah Baah, to step aside pending investigations into the fire outbreak at the Akosombo Power Control Centre.
The incident, which affected key control systems at the facility, has significantly disrupted power transmission and contributed to widespread outages across several parts of the country.
