Ing. Joseph Forson speaking at the press conference yesterday
POWER DISTRIBUTION Service (PDS) has revealed that its customers in the Krobo District of the Eastern Region owes the company over GH¢84 million in terms of accumulated power consumed.
According to PDS, the power was consumed between 2014 and 2016 when most of the customers got hooked onto the national grid through the Self-Help Electrification Project (SHEP) without the knowledge of PDS.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Ing Joseph Forson, the Tema Regional Manager of PDS, said “at the time we were cleaning our data, the total debt was about GH¢195 million. We cleansed and . . . the data, as of April 2016, was about GH¢84 million.”
He said that all efforts by his outfit to collect the accumulated debt had been resisted by the youth of Krobo who chased PDS officials out of the community, adding that there is no way the debt could be cancelled.
“It must be emphasized that there have been numerous engagements between ECG/PDS and the representation of the customers in the district in a bid to resolve the fundamental issues underlying these demonstrations and concerns. Several meetings have been held in the town and ECG/PDS and several representative groups of the customers and customer education sessions to directly engage individual customers.
“In spite of all these engagements at various levels, there are groups who seem to have taken entrenched positions against all the processes that should lead to amicable resolutions of the underlying issues,” he pointed out.
Going forward, he mentioned that PDS, through the Ghana Police Service, has secured an interlocutory injunction to restraint all representations of the Krobo District customers and all stakeholders from attacking and preventing PDS officials from performing their lawful duties.
He categorically stated that PDS customers in the Kroboland must show commitment to pay the accumulated power consumed before power would be restored to the area.
The regional manager appealed to its customers in the district to cooperate with its staff members who are undertaking the two-week special revenue mobilisaton exercise aimed at improving the finances and operations of the company.
From Vincent Kubi, Tema