Samuel Dubik Mahama, the Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), has rendered an absolute apology to customers of the power company, for the the systems inefficiency.
The ECG boss partly attributed the problem of not rendering top-notch services to its lack of funds, due to customers not paying their bills on time. He admitted that in a few than most occasions, the ECG has not delivered efficiently to the satisfaction of its customers.
Over the years, the Electricity Company of Ghana has been criticized for its poor service delivery with cases of unresolved problems, relating to unannounced power cuts and malfunctioning meters, amongst others. However, ECG has over the month embarked on a massive revenue mobilisation exercise, where some homes, government institutions and private companies, have been taken off the national grid for debt owed.
In an interview on Thursday, April 20, Mr. Samuel Dubik Mahama expressed, “Let me take this opportunity to apologize to our customers, we’ve fallen short of the service we promised to provide. It’s a shared responsibility because it goes both ways. The requisite revenue is not coming in, so we cannot actually give the top-notch services that we are promising.”
The ECG boss urged customers of the ECG, across the country, to pay their bills religiously without defaulting. He further entreated customers to desist from illegal connections, as it affects its production.
“It’s more of the fact that we both have to do the right thing at the right time, so that we can have those harmonious services. If you take ten customers, five post and five pre-paid, that is the ratio; out of the five, two are paying and are good customers, the other three are not paying at all and they by-pass the post-paid meter, to some extent.
“Now you come to pre-paid meters, all the five are paying; two of them are the good ones, they are paying and haven’t touched the meter. But the three, there is a meter by-pass or something like that; so whatever he’s paying, he has decided how much to pay ECG. Some people have also created a by-pass in the walls, so it is not easy to detect it from the naked eye. Steps are being taken to solve this problem.”
Samuel Dubik Mahama
He stressed that the ECG will not entertain any more excuses from customers who owe the power company.
Dubik Mahama Claims ECG Revenue Mobilisation Not IMF Driven
Samuel Dubik Mahama refuted suggestions that the revenue mobilization exercise, is one of several conditionalities from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The ECG has embarked on a one-month-long revenue mobilization exercise to recover some GH¢5.7 billion from individuals and firms, who have failed to pay for power used.
A section of the public suggested that the exercise is one of the conditions by the IMF to help Ghana meet the requirement for a $3 billion bailout.
However, on Thursday, April 20, Mr. Dubik Mahama disclosed that the ECG had to embark on the exercise to retrieve monies owed them, to help save the company financially.
“If someone says this is IMF driven, it is very sad. That means that you don’t want to applaud ECG, because we took our time, and suffered what we had to suffer, to get to where we are now. The dashboard showed us where we were leaking, where we were bleeding and what the billing system is saying, and then we lost our moral high ground by sitting in the office and being owed GH¢5.7 billion.
“So, we said let’s all move out in one month and see if we can close the gap and see if we can make everybody happy. Through this exercise, one of the things that will happen is that we will be able to clean our books.”
Samuel Dubik Mahama
Meanwhile, Mr. Mahama has revealed that ECG has been able to recoup over GH¢2 billion from its defaulting customers, within the last few weeks. He claimed that he is hopeful his outfit will be able to collect more from defaulters, by the end of the exercise this week.
“We have collected in excess of GH¢2 billion. That is less than half [of what we targeted], but we have one more week to go, before I am able to give my figures. I will sit down, do an assessment and then see…Why are people not paying?…We will disconnect and prosecute.”
Samuel Dubik Mahama
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