The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) says it cannot work with the proposal by the Krobo Groups to declare the over 8years disputed accumulated bills as bad debt.
According to ECG, it cannot ring-fence debt from 2014 to 2021 as demanded by the Krobo Associations as it can only ring-fence from 2014 to 2017 debt for further action.
The two major groups in the Krobo areas of the Eastern Region, Kloma Hengme (KH) and Kloma Gbi (KG) made a fresh demand to ECG just 24 hours after power restoration to the Yilo Krobo and Manya Krobo Municipalities after 7 days of living in darkness that they want the over 8years disputed accumulated bills absorbed or declare as bad debt by cleaning the slate for fresh start.
They believe it is the surest way to make headway and restore peace between the Krobos and ECG.
However, addressing a press conference to inform their customers, the general public and the media of the road map that ECG has adopted to bring lasting peace between the Company and its customers within the Lower Manya Krobo and Yilo Krobo communities on Thursday December 16, 2021, Managing Director of ECG, Kwame Agyeman-Budu said “While ECG’s position is to ring-fence the 2014 – 2017 debt for further action, the Associations in their release, proposed a ring-fencing of up to July 2021. The proposal of the Associations is not workable.”
He continued that “We have had several engagements with our stakeholders in the Krobo district and have continually stressed the need for those indebted to ECG to pay their bills. Whereas some customers see the need to sustain ECG as a national asset by paying their accumulated bills, others are not paying because they think the power consumed must be free. This attitude may be due to an alleged MoU between Kwame Nkrumah and Krobo elders exempting Krobos from paying electricity bills. The Krobo Chiefs and other prominent Krobo citizens have debunked this fallacy.”
Mr. Agyemang-Budi explained that power outage experienced in the Krobo District last week was as a result of technical challenges and as a preventive measure contrary to misconception that the outage experienced was to punish faithful customers for the wrongs of few.
“When we re-located operations to Juapong, we made mention of the fact that we will need security escorts to maintain the system or repair faults in the Krobo area because of their threats. Unfortunately, within that period we lost two transformers. After a diagnosis of the event that led to the loss of these transformers, we discovered that some unauthorized person(s) transferred load from a transformer that was down due to an overload, to an adjacent trans former which eventually got overloaded too. This means that we lost two transformers due to the actions of some faceless persons. In order to save lives and properties, we had no option than to isolate the feeders serving the area.
“Ladies and gentlemen, as I speak, the two damaged transformers have both been replaced by the hard working engineers of ECG and those communities are enjoying uninterrupted power supply. We are calling on our valued customers in the Krobo area to appreciate the huge investment ECG makes in serving them and reciprocate by paying their bills as their moral and business obligation,” the MD said.
Continuous closure of Somanya office
The Yilo Krobo and Lower Manya Krobo Chiefs, Members of Parliament for Yilo Krobo, Lower Manya Krobo and Upper Manya Krobo Constituencies, Presiding Members and other high ranking opinion leaders came to the ECG Head Office in Accra to engage with ECG Management.
They made a passionate appeal for ECG to reopen the Somanya office and resume full operations from Somanya.
According to him, they are awaiting on assessment being done by the security agencies in connection with their safety in the area and until the security agencies complete assessing the situation on the ground.
Touching on the way forward after restoration of power supply in Krobo district, the MD said since Monday, December 13, 2021, a team has been tasked to visit the premises of all customers in the Lower Manya Krobo and Yilo Krobo enclave to undertake meters reading to enable ECG to produce the current bills and also to generate relevant customer statements for the affected periods.
The team Mr. Agyeman-Budu added will carry out pre-installation survey to capture technical data in preparation for the introduction of prepaid meters and conduct technical inspection to assure the integrity of ECG’s energy meters within the premises of customers.
He served notice that “Any illegality found will not be condoned but regularized in accordance with ECG’s policies. This exercise will ensure quality power supply to customers and help to reduce commercial losses.
After the successful reading of the meters, customers will receive their current bills in January 2022 for them to pay promptly. Attached to the bills will be their statements clearly showing all the necessary transactions.”
Immediately afterwards, he indicated that ECG staff will be stationed at our offices at Somanya, Nuaso, Juapong and other vantage locations to assist customers with the value of their indebtedness and the flexible terms of payment.
“I wish to remind all Ghanaians that ECG is a national asset and the catalyst in our quest to industrialize. We are therefore obliged by law and our conscience to pay for the electricity that we consume.
“Once again, I want to emphasize that ECG has NO problem with the people of Krobo land. We are only exercising our mandate of distributing electricity and collecting revenue for the services rendered which directly sustains all the players in the power sector value chain. From here, the communication and stakeholder engagement teams will hit the ground running by writing letters to the various associations, traditional authorities, religious leaders, political and institutional heads, opinion leaders etc requesting to further engage them.”
By Vincent Kubi