By Michael Kofi Kenetey
The Eastern Regional Office of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), in collaboration with the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), has organised a collaborative engagement breakfast for their consumers at Akim Oda in the Birim Central Municipality of the Eastern Region.
The breakfast engagement is to empower the consumers on what is available to them as consumers and also to help achieve the year goal of PURC, which includes self-improvement, transparency, enforcement and proactiveness.
In an interview with GBC NEWS, the Eastern Regional Manager of PURC, Mr. Jude Aduamoah-Addo, hinted that in their function to protect both consumers and the utility providers in the region, his outfit received, investigated and resolved 26 tariff complaints from customers and one tariff complaint from ECG this year.
These, he said, have amounted to over one hundred thousand cedis recoveries for the 26 consumers and over seven thousand cedis recoveries to the ECG.
The Akim Oda District Manager of ECG, Ing. Maxwell Essel, explained that in addressing the complaints of exorbitant post-paid electricity bills, the ECG has provided a handheld machine to the meter readers to help solve the meter reading challenges. He advised consumers on how to conserve energy in their homes and reduce their energy consumption to reduce the cost of tariffs they pay.
The Eastern Regional Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Water Company Limited, Mr. Kwadwo Daasi, stated that non-payment of water bills by some consumers is a challenge confronting his outfit. He emphasised that the issue of illegal mining is really affecting their operations, which in some way amount to about five times the amount they would have used to purify the water and distribute it to the homes.
The collaborative engagement by PURC in collaboration with the utility providers brought together over one hundred consumers in the Akim Oda District from the various associations, including the Ghana Beauticians Association (GHABA), Ghana Tailors Association, Ghana Traders Association, Welders and Carpenters Group, as well as individual consumers.
It also brought together regional staff of PURC, regional and Akim Oda district staff of ECG and GWCL to address the concerns of the consumers in the district. The consumers were provided the opportunity to pour out their concerns and challenges concerning their electricity and water bills, while opportunity was also offered to the utility providers to address the concerns of the consumers.
