Prepaid meters affecting smooth administration in public institutions

Ho, July 7, GNA - The installation of pre-paid meters on the premises of subvented organizations in the Ho Municipality is posing challenges to the operations of such bodies. This came to light on Monday when the Ghana News Agency visited some Ministries, Departments and Agencies in Ho to find out how they were coping with the new prepaid meters.

It found that, many of such offices were unable to buy credit (units) to recharge their meters, thus bringing their operations to a virtual standstill.

Some of the offices visited had their meters showing red lights, a signal that they have to re-charge their meters, whilst others around the Volta Regional Coordinating Council, have been without electricity power for some time now. Corroborating the GNA's observations, Mr Lord Benjamin Boni, the Volta Regional Accountant of the Ghana Education Service said the situation was affecting productivity and equipment of the Service. He said the Service had to look for "ways and means", sometimes falling on monies meant for other purposes to re-charge their meters to keep the offices running.

Mr Boni said the schools were doing the same thing, which he said, was not healthy for academic work. He said though the GES had received letters from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to forward electricity bills to it for payment, nothing had been done leaving the institutions to their fate. The Accountant said as a result, students forgo lessons when there was no money to buy credits and workers idled about in the offices when the credit was finished.

He urged government to respond to the problem quickly by releasing resources. Mr Nelson Akagbor, Volta Regional Director of the Geological Survey Department told the GNA that, the office had bought unit three times since October last year and had been without electricity whenever the Department had no money to re-charge its meter.