Ghanaians can’t pre-finance poor service – CPA tells PURC

The Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) has flayed the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) for allowing the Utility Service Providers to force ordinary Ghanaians into pre-financing their operations, when their services are nothing to write home about.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Agency, Kofi Kapito, insists if the utility companies are bent on improving their operations, they should rather go and borrow from the open market and enhance the service delivery for Ghanaians first before passing on any tariff adjustment to consumers.

In an interaction with Fiifi Banson on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.3 FM, Kofi Kapito said, "although the increment is on a high side, Ghanaians will appreciate paying more for a service they're enjoying."

Kapito contends that no matter how they [Utility providers] increase the tariffs, there won’t be any significant improvement in their services because institutions owe them excess monies which has not been paid till now.

According to him, beside the fact that the increment is unjustified, the move also lacks clarity and transparency.

The PURC says the increment is to help ECG purchase the needed equipment to effectively run the current load management system.