Bawumia details how ECG staff sabotaged digitalization efforts

The government’s digitalization efforts to digitize tax collection systems have been purposefully impeded by persons within the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), according to Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

The goal of the Akufo-Addo administration’s digitalization program, led by Dr. Bawumia, was to streamline and modernize revenue collection techniques.

Speaking at the Annual AGM of Anti-corruption Agencies in Africa, Dr. Bawumia revealed that some employees of the ECG’s IT department had infiltrated ransomware into the system, which caused disruptions and impeded the advancement of digitalization.

He went on to explain that the ransomware attack caused system malfunctions, which presented serious difficulties. The national security agency’s assistance was necessary in order to identify the sabotage’s perpetrators.

Dr. Bawumia voiced his displeasure at the purposeful obstruction, emphasizing that the ransomware event was meant to extort funds from the government. Dr. Bawumia deemed the demand for payment made by the offenders to reinstate the system’s functionality to be intolerable.

The system was restored and the digitizing process started up again after the culprits were identified and apprehended. Ghana eventually stopped accepting cash payments for energy in favor of electronic bank transfers and mobile money.

The Vice President underlined how successful the digitization initiatives have been, pointing out a notable rise in monthly income collections from over GHC450 million to over a billion cedis. This accomplishment highlights how digitization has improved Ghana’s electricity sector’s revenue efficiency and transparency.

Dr. Bawumia said: “They just kept it at GH₵450 million every month. So, I said we need to send in a team to digitalise the new collection of the Electricity Company of Ghana, so we sent in a team, and we began the process of digitalise.

“Can you believe that workers within the system sabotaged, they put in ransomware into the whole system. And the system essentially collapsed. We had to send in national security to eventually find that it was some of the staff at the IT department who were culpable.

“And we found the computer which the ransomware was injected in the system. It took us awhile to restore the system. They asked for a ransom to actually allow for this to work. Can you imagine? That we should pay, they submitted a bill that we should pay for the system to work.

“Anyway, they were arrested. And we restored the system and we digitised the system and we said that no more cash payments for electricity in Ghana. You only pay by your mobile money, electronic bank transfers. So that is now the case. Can you believe that from GH₵450 million a month, collections have now gone to over a billion cedis a month.”