ECG on warpath in Eastern, Volta Regions
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is on the warpath to collect money owed it by a number of individuals and companies in the New Juaben municipality in the Eastern Region and the Ho municipality in the Volta Region.
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In the Eastern Region, a number of companies, individuals and institutions owe the power distribution company GH¢3 million, while in the Volta Region a number of consumers owe GH¢3.6 million.
George Folley reports from Koforidua that the total indebtedness of consumers is equivalent to the six months’ salaries of the staff of the company.
As part of the measures to retrieve the money, the ECG has decided to prosecute the defaulting institutions, which include the Ghana Water Company, the Ghana Police Service and the Koforidua Polytechnic.
Additionally, it has embarked on an exercise to disconnect defaulters, including the Koforidua Polytechnic, for their indebtedness to the ECG.
The polytechnic has, for some time now, been struggling to pay its debt of GH¢791,412.69.
The Eastern Regional General Manager of the ECG, Ing Michael Baah, told the Daily Graphic, in an interview, that the high electricity debt owed in the municipality was hampering the effective delivery of service, in spite of the fact that the company was doing its best with infrastructural development and other equipment to boost power supply in the area.
New projects
He said the ECG had constructed an additional 40MVA capacity substation at Adweso Mile 50 to support the only existing 20MVA at Nsukwao, a suburb of Koforidua.
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He said the construction of the new substation would help accommodate more load in the next five to 10 years.
Koforidua Polytechnic disconnected
Meanwhile, the Registrar of the Koforidua Polytechnic, Nii Annan Mensah-Livingstone, has expressed surprise at the action of the ECG, in spite of a letter dated May 18, 2015 and signed by the Minister of Power, Dr Kwabena Donkor, stating that all public educational and health institutions should be exempted from any disconnection exercise in view of the critical services they provided the citizenry.
The letter, copied to the acting managing directors of the ECG and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company Limited (NEDCO), among other institutions said, "This directive will be in force pending a more comprehensive solution to the payment of utility bills by public sector institutions."
Mr Mensah-Livingstone wondered why, among all the polytechnics in the country, it was only the Koforidua Polytechnic that was being "harassed" by the ECG.
Ho
From Ho Mary Anane reports that the ECG in the Volta Region has embarked on a similar exercise to retrieve GH¢3.6 million owed it by consumers.
The company has issued demand notices to 218 defaulting consumers, including companies, as a final warning to them to settle their indebtedness to the ECG or face prosecution.
The defaulting customers who have been served and who have a maximum of 14 days to clear arrears, include individuals, district assemblies, schools, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and the Ghana Post.
Disconnection
Already customers whose bills are in arrears of more than 28 days after receipt of the bills have been disconnected.
However, the Volta Regional General Manager of the ECG, Ing Joseph Mensah Forson, said in a press release that defaulters who had been disconnected should not take it as a “licence to refuse to pay for the power you have already used”.
According to him, those who failed to respond appropriately and promptly to the demand notice would be prosecuted.
Expanding operations
He said it was part of the plans of the company to provide power for all under-served and developing communities in the region to bring transformational change in those communities.
However, the huge debt owed was taking a toll on the operations of the ECG in the region.
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