The Electricity Company of Ghana Ltd (ECG) has recovered over Gh¢ 29 million from its debtors in the Greater Accra Region through the intervention of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC).
The Gh¢29,080,692.20 is out of a total indebtedness of Gh¢ 33,807,691.20 for 2024, which was paid by 17 institutions – public and private. Madam Gifty Bruce-Nelson, the Greater Accra Regional Manager, PURC, said this at a media briefing on the various interventions the Commission had undertaken to provide quality services to citizens and ensure utilities’ viability and sustainability.
She said the PURC, after writing to some customers to settle their debts to avoid disconnection, the 17 institutions, including Parliament, paid. Madam Bruce-Nelson said some customers within the region in 2024 had some adjustments (financial payments) totaling Gh¢ 867,535.67, made in their favour after lodging complaints against ECG to the Commission.
“In 2023, adjustments made and paid to customers amounted to Gh¢ 634,167.48. We ensure that customers that have genuine cases are sorted out. Most often residential customers hardly owe huge amounts, it is the industries and government agencies,” she said. Madam Bruce-Nelson said the regional office received a total of 1,444 complaints against regulated utilities during the year under review, out of which came 1,436 complaints, representing 99 per cent that had been resolved.
She said out of the 1,444 complaints, there were 1,151 against ECG, 207 against Ghana Water Limited (GWL) and 86 made by ECG against customers. “In 2023 the regional office received total complaints of 1,726 and out of this 1,584 representing 92 per cent were resolved,” the Regional Manager said.
In a presentation on PURC’s Annual Year Complaints and Public Relations Activities for 2024, the sources of complaints were the electronic media with 778, phone-in complaints 267, written complaints 184, walk-in complaints 108, and field complaints 65. Top among them was quality of service, billing, metering, consumer service delivery, and unlawful disconnection.
Source: GNA
