MMDAs owe ECG GHC1.6bn – Workers reveal

A comment by the Energy Minister, Emmanuel Boakye Agyarko, critiquing the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) over faulty metering system and avoidable employee recklessness which has caused the state utility firm to be heavily indebted has provoked the anger of staff of the company to spill the beans.

According to the workers, all the challenges confronting the company have come about as a result of acts of omission and commission by politicians in power who have oversight responsibility over the firm.

For instance, the workers say because of political directives not to disconnect the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) with the promise of paying their bills, the debt stock of these state agencies as at March, 31, 2017 stood at GH?1,617,933,770.08.

As at the end of 2016 the MMDAs debt stood at GH¢1,390,966,034.74 while the debt stock of these Assemblies for first three months of 2017 also totaled GH¢226,967,736.08.

Out of the total debt stock of the MMDAs, the government has only paid a paltry sum of GH¢18,133,575.17.

The workers of the ECG revealed this in a rejoinder statement to the Energy Minister which was signed on their behalf by the General Secretary, Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU), Michael Adumatta Nyantakyi.

Mr. Boakye Agyarko, according to a Daily Guide report dated Monday, May 15, 2017, is incensed at the growing debt stock of the ECG which appears to be worsening by the day due to its faulty metering system and avoidable employee recklessness.

Speaking to a group of journalists and officials of Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) after the inauguration of a 7-member ECG PSP Stakeholders’ Committee in Accra, the minister said he was shocked that ECG has GH¢130 million a week in receivable, but only collects GH¢50 million. “What happens to the balance? You look at their inventory and they have 20 years’ supply of spares. You have locked up that money in spares that would be obsolete,” he was quoted as saying by Daily Guide.

But the workers of the ECG say the blame should be placed at the doorsteps of the government, arguing that if the government stops its political directives to the company, there will be much improvement in the operations of ECG.

“It is strange for the Minister to attribute this accumulation of debt to the reckless acts or behavior of ECG employees. If there is any debt accumulation, then it is the direct action of government for non-payment of MMDA bills, and not any inaction on the part of ECG employees. There have been several instances where efforts to collect amounts owing from MMDAs have been frustrated and sometimes interfered by political pressures, such that even organizations that were disconnected were asked to be reconnected by political authorities,” the rejoinder statement in part read.