ECG unaware of GHC200,000 PURC fine

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is unaware of the purported fine imposed on it by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Mr Patrick Tetteh, a senior staff member of the state power distributor has said.

According to him, since the PURC had failed to inform ECG about the purported sanction, the state power distributor would not respond to such news.

PURC on Friday September 16 announced that it had imposed a fine of GHS 202,640 on ECG for breaching LI 1861 and LI 1935.

The company and its leaders refused to sell prepaid power to customers during a recent three-day strike in protest to the proposed privatisation of ECG. The situation caused a lot of discomfort to both domestic and industrial customers who had to struggle to keep their homes and businesses lit.

However, speaking in an interview with Nana Ama Agyarko on Accra100.5FM’s mid-day news on Friday September 16, Mr Tetteh said: “We (ECG) are only hearing about this sanction in the media and on social media; we have not been communicated to by the PURC.”

“As far as we are concerned, we are not aware of any such sanction by the PURC against the ECG because we cannot rely on social media reports.”

He wondered why the PURC would write to the media about the sanctions instead of communicating the decision to the supposed offender.

“PURC chose to write to the media whereas the supposed offender has not been written to and so how do we work with it?” he wondered.

“We are waiting for the letter and after that we will give the appropriate response.”