ECG to squeeze NSA at the courts

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Western Regional Office have moved their quest and attempts to recover the debt owed them by the National Sports Authority (NSA) for the power used by the Essipong Sports Stadium.

Investigations reveal that the ECG are chasing after a staggering Six Hundred and Seventy Eight Thousand, Three Hundred and Ninety Eight Ghana Cedis and Thirty Five Pesewas (GHC 678,398.35) for Essipong Sports Stadium’s use of the national grid since it construction in 2008 for the hosting of the AFCON 2008 to December 2014 when the multi sports facility was eventually disconnected from the grid.

Government on behalf of the NSA was responsible for the payment of bills incurred by the stadium from 2008 to December 2013, but government in January 2014 gave directive that all state institutions and agencies should start paying their own bills from that date. That meant state owned schools,hospitals,ministries among others were duty bound to pay their use of electricity.

Government therefore will absorb a debt of GHC 279,526.38 from 2008 to 2013 as it share of the total cost. This leaves the NSA with GHC 398,871.97 as it actual debt to the ECG for 2014 when they were disconnected finally in December 2014. The NSA later paid GHC 5,000 which leaves them with GHC 393,871.97 as their outstanding debt.

The Sekondi stadium according to the ECG operates as a Special Load Tariff (SLT) customer with a dedicated transformer at it premises. Public Relations Officer of the Western Regional Office of the ECG, Philip Osei Bonsu exclusively spoke to Allsports.com.gh about their decision to prosecute the NSA and he said the failure of the NSA to agree on a payment plan after almost a year of being disconnected has forced the ECG to engage the NSA in a legal battle.

He said "what happen is when you are disconnected you come for us to sit down and agree on a payment plan. In the case of the NSA they've not done any such thing and they've been disconnected since December 2014 and it's almost a year now and they've not come for us to sit down and agree on any concrete payment plan so we are really left with no option than to use the law court to reclaim our monies.

He further explained their stance. "The point is when you are disconnected it behooves on you the customer to take steps and the point is for us, once you are served with what we call the "demand notice" that you owe us so make sure you come and pay. If you don't come the only option for us is to come in and disconnect you. So we've gone through that processes and that's how come they are disconnected and after that we expect them to come and meet us because until we see any commitment from them there is no way we would reconnect the stadium unto the national grid.

"So it's for them to come and if they don't come then we take it that they just want to take us for granted so then we move to the law court and that's the stage we are now to move to the law court to get the court to compel them to pay our debt so that's what we are going to do" he revealed.