Mr. Otoo addressing the media on the objectives of the exercise
The Accra East Region of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), has embarked on a revenue mobilization exercise dubbed ‘Operation Fix The Bill & Pay The Bill’ aimed at checking the integrity of all prepaid and postpaid metres.
The exercise which began on Monday November 6, 2023, and will run through to December 11, 2023, is taking place simultaneously across all ECG operational areas in Ghana and will provide the power distributor an opportunity to close the gaps in its services thereby eliminating losses.
Accra East Regional Manager of ECG, Bismarck Otoo, in an interview noted that one of the major challenges the company had faced over the years is the inability to account for all the power it purchases.
According to him, the exercise will help the company ascertain whether metres installed for customers are working well, actually receiving bills and whether they being billed accurately.
“The whole idea is to make sure that we are able to audit all our service connections, all customers that are using electricity, to ensure that we are able to know where the losses are because over the years the losses have been our major setback and this time around, we are going to ensure that we cover everywhere.
Mr. Otoo urged the public to cooperate with officials of the ECG who would be visiting their homes and premises to check the meters, indicating that the company would be forced to disconnect power supply to those who deny them access to their facilities.
He said the field officers will usually leave a notice at locked premises and the owners are to approach the company within three days to have their metres checked, indicating that “if after two, three days we don’t hear from you, please know that our ECG officers will come and if they come and they still have no access to the premises we will go by the regulation provided in the PURC Act to disconnect service connection to your premise because in that case you have denied us access to check your metre.”
“We want to plead with everyone in Ghana, everyone using electricity that this is an operation to know our customers, we want to fix the bills that many a times customers complain about so that everyone will have confidence to be able to pay the bill, Mr. Otoo stated.
He also indicated that home owners are at liberty to check the identity of those who will visit their homes and can as well confirm their identity from the ECG office if they are in doubt about the identity of any staff.
Mr. otoo added that the company has sought the assistance of security agencies to ensure the safety of its staff, adding that “their duty is to solely provide security for our staff so if any customer or energy consumer wants to assault any ECG staff the person should know that we have security people among our men so they shouldn’t do that.”
BY Gibril Abdul Razak