ECG faces PURC sanctions over staff strike

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has warned management of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to put in contingency measures to serve customers in the face of a two-day sit-down strike by workers.

Workers of the country’s major power distributor are protesting the proposed privatization of the company by government.

But in a statement issued on Friday, September 2, PURC did not mince words over the effect of the strike on Ghanaians, stating that: “Management of ECG should not lose sight of the fact that distribution of electricity is an essential service so under the circumstances a contingency plan should be put in place to ensure that services to the consumer will not be curtailed completely”.

Workers of ECG began with a three-hour per day protest, which lasted three days. The sit-down protest, which was activated on Friday, September 2 and scheduled to end on Monday, September 5, is to press on government to backtrack on the decision to privatise the company.

The action is said to be having a toll on purchase of prepaid credit by customers. “This is a very unfortunate situation especially when it is at the beginning of the month when most customers of prepaid meters purchase their units,” PURC’s statement observed.

“Their inability to purchase electricity units definitely means that consumers who are affected are going to sleep in darkness and also businesses on prepaid metering will be unable to operate”.

Though private vendors may come in handy at this moment, PURC says it will activate the sanctions and penalties under the Electricity Supply and Distribution (Technical and Operational) Rules 2005 (LI 1816).