Corporate and public debtors of the company will be dragged to the specialised court, set up recently by the Chief Justice to deal with nonpayment of bills, power theft and other issues relating to electricity.
This follows the inauguration of “Pay Your Bills Now” taskforce by the ministry in Accra over the weekend.
The move, according to the Minister of Power, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, would save the state-owned power distributor from collapse.
Dr. Donkor, who spoke passionately at the inauguration ceremony warned that the ECG would be at the brink of collapse if they do not have cash infusion, and yet it was being owed millions of cedis by private and government institutions.
They owe the ECG over GH¢500 million, which makes it cumbersome for the company to pay some power producers, including Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in the country.
He added: “As a nation, we cannot afford to let this valuable asset we call ECG collapse. It will be most irresponsible of us and we will not allow that”.
Dr. Donkor, who spoke passionately about the precarious power situation in the country stated: “As a nation we have to sign the Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC) 2 because we have failed to do the right things”.
On the taskforce, he was confident that it was going to retrieve all the monies owed the company, but directed that all the bungalows and properties of ECG should be metered.
“The staff of ECG should pay for their electricity bills like any Ghanaian. We are also asking all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to pay their bills. So, if you don’t pay you won’t get power”, Dr. Donkor emphasized.
While ancillary facilities of public institutions; including the universities, hospitals and police stations are expected to be provided with separate billing meters, these auxiliary facilities, the minister noted, feed fat on ECG.
On his part, the Acting Managing Director of ECG, Robert Dwamena reiterated: “We are going to collect every cedi and every pesewa owed us. If you know you owe ECG, kindly come and pay”.
Touching on the structure of the taskforce, he noted that there would be a steering committee at the ECG head office, which will be chaired by Dr. Ofosu Ahenkora, a member of the ECG board.
The committee, he said, would be responsible for policy and evaluation of performance.
The regional taskforce on the other hand, is made up of the regional general manager, regional commercial manager, while the district taskforce will include the ECG district manager.
The responsibilities of the taskforce, Mr. Dwamena noted, would lead and mobilise staff to ensure that the company collects 100% of its billed revenue and ensure enough cash payment points in ECG operational areas.
He added: “In areas where ECG is not well represented, adequate number of bonded cashiers and payment vendors should be engaged to make it easier for customers to pay their bills.
“Public address systems should be mounted on our revenue mobilization vehicles for educating and encouraging people to pay their bills for better services to be rendered”.
The taskforce will also have the additional responsibility of checking loss reduction by unearthing illegal connections, meter tampering and bypassing, Mr. Dwamena indicated.
African Eye News.com