Samuel Dubik Mahama, Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), has proclaimed the institution of a reward scheme for citizens who report illegal connections in their localities.
The ECG MD addressing a press conference on Thursday, May 4, claimed citizens will get 6 percent of the total debt of the illegal connection they report.
“Citizens who report illegal connection will get 6 percent of the amount,” the ECG boss averred, adding that “let’s all use this as a means to help ECG. ECG is not for one person, it is for all of us.”
Mr. Samuel Dubik Mahama also revealed that ECG has been able to recoup over GH¢3.1 billion from its defaulting customers within the last few weeks. However, the power company in its one-month-long revenue mobilization, was hoping to recover GH¢5.7 billion from individuals and firms who have failed to pay for power used.
The exercise forced both government and private institutions to cough up some funds to settle outstanding debt to avoid disconnection. Some institutions were not disconnected from the national grid, following the show of commitment to settle their debts.
The ECG Taskforce ContinuesTo Mount Operations To Retrieve All Debts Owed The Company
The Managing Director of the ECG, Samuel Dubik Mahama, earlier said that an amount of GHS5.7 billion was owed to the state power distributor.
He assured that the action of the company was going to be intensified to retrieve all these debts. “Every month, we will show up to collect the debts,” he intimated.
The task force has already visited institutions such as Parliament, the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), among others, as part of the debt recovery.
Speaking to journalists, the External Communications Manager of ECG, Laila Abubakar said “The national task force is the one that is in charge of the state-owned enterprises, the ministries, departments and agencies and so, we have been going with them, we visited Parliament House, they were owing about a GHS13million; they have committed to paying GHS8.5million, we saw evidence of that.
“We went to the Ghana Airport Company, they owed arrears of GHS28million, of which they made GHS10 million payment instantly, just when we got there. So, we have given them 48 hours to make the full payment. Now, we are here at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, they also owe in arrears of about GHS6 million but they have explained to us that because of the way they run their operations, they wouldn’t be able to cough out the money for us instantly, they have had some discussions with the Minister of Information and the National Media Commission, together with the Ministry of Energy and there was some sort of agreement last year.
“However, ECG’s point is that there has not been any movement on the debt that is remaining. They have explained to us they have a system and they are going to get some money and pay because they have to find innovative ways of coming up with the money. And so, we have been given permission to leave them for now.”
Laila Abubakar
Laila Abubakar said “In Tema, we have received photos of disconnections happening in residences, we have received photos of them in some of the industries in Tema and they are being disconnected.
“I am hoping that by the end of the day, we should be able to see a lot of money coming in, into our accounts. Our system has been digitized in such a way that by the end of the day, the Managing Director will be able to see how much we have recouped from this exercise and so, we will report in a timely basis, how much we are making on a weekly basis.”
Laila Abubakar
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