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Staff of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) are unhappy with Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s assertion that some IT staff in the company initially sabotaged efforts to digitalize the company.
According to the Vice President, after carefully studying ECG’s revenue for some time, he realized that annual amount accrued was stagnant.
Speaking at the Annual AGM of Anti-corruption Agencies in Africa, Dr Bawumia said he therefore instructed that revenue collection be digitalized.
However, some IT staff inserted ransomware in a bid to stop the process. He said as a result of National Security efforts, the culprits were arrested which allowed for the digitalization of ECG.
“Every month, the Electricity Company of Ghana earned GHC450. After that, I looked at the statistics because, although we had been raising energy rates and other costs over time, for some reason, the data showed that, for a period of four to five years, the monthly amount was GHC450 million. I said, “How come?” when it stayed the same. This is remarkable, so I suggested we needed to send in a team to digitalize revenue collection for Ghana Electricity Company, so we put in a team and started the digitalization process.
Can you believe that system employees installed ransomware throughout the entire system to ruin it? And that’s when the system fell apart. We were required to submit a national security, who later discovered that several employees of the IT department were at fault. Furthermore, we located the machine on which the ransomware had been installed. Our system restoration process takes some time. To make this truly function, they demanded a ransom. Is that even possible? In order for the system to function, they submitted a bill that we need to pay.
In any case, they were taken into custody. And we said that Ghana would no longer accept cash payments for energy after digitising the system and restoring it. You solely use electronic bank transfers and mobile money to make payments. That is presently the situation. Is it not astonishing that monthly receipts have increased to more over one billion cedis from GHC 450 million?
However, the vice president’s remarks have not gone down well with the ECG staff.
They voiced their displeasure with the Vice President’s assertions in a document that Starr News managed to obtain.
They voiced their displeasure with the Vice President’s allegations in a document that Starr News managed to obtain.
“Greetings, Sisters and Brothers. The Vice President’s speech detailing a previous incident in which malware was introduced and caused the collapse of ECG’s ICT system has been highlighted by the leadership. The Vice President unequivocally charged that the ECG employees were the ones responsible for this regrettable occurrence.
“Leadership has acknowledged this and is presently having a conversation to issue a statement in response. We ask employees not to let this publication get to them; instead, they should keep their cool and carry on with their regular duties.
Source:preciousmedia.org
