Govt agencies owe Ghana Telecom, Ho, huge amounts

Customers of the Ghana Telecom (GT) in the Volta Region owe the company more than 1.5 billion cedis, Mr Douglas Wagba, Volta Regional Head of the company said in an interview.

He said about half of the money was owed by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), which had paid nothing since January this year.

Mr Wagba said the company, constrained by the fact that some of the debtor agencies played vital roles for which telephone facilities were extremely important, continued to offer them the services without payment.

Mr Wagba said the government's promise to pay 40 billion cedis to clear the arrears of the MDAs was yet to be fulfilled.

He said the company had instituted legal action against defaulting clients in the Ketu District to redeem the debts, saying: "The exercise will be extended to the whole region."

On the operations of the company in the region, Mr. Wagba said out of an exchange capacity of 12,220 lines, 6,780 had been connected.

He said Hohoe had the largest exchange with 5,000 lines out of which, 1,200 had been connected adding, that a programme aimed at connecting 3,500 lines would begin this month.

Mr Wagba said the Jasikan and Kadjebi Districts would benefit from 30 lines each from the Hohoe exchange as temporary measure, while plans were being finalised to install a system to serve the northern part of the region.

He said the company would supply a 400 capacity Wireless Local Loop (WILL) equipment in towns and villages within 40 kilometres radius of Hohoe.

Mr Wagba said company had installed 221 pay phones in the region and this would be increased to 500 by the end of September.

He said the patronage of the Company's pre-paid card was tremendous and advised customers with 'phobia' for high bills to use the card to regulate themselves.

Mr Wagba expressed concern over the tampering with pay phones by unscrupulous people who push strange objects into them to cheat.

He said a self-correcting mechanism of the system as a result of such tampering resulted in customers losing their units faster than normal.

Mr Wagba, therefore, urged members of the public to be vigilant and report such people to the Police.

On what assistance the company could give to Internet operators to stay in business in the region, Mr Wagba asked such operators to seek approval from the National Communications Authority (NCA) before establishing their businesses.

He said most Internet operators in the region had failed to register with the company and were therefore not benefiting from its special dispensations.