PURC records over 1,100 consumer complaints in six months

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission says it has recorded over 1,100 complaints, mostly on the quality of service, from consumers of water and electricity in the first six months of this year.

Nana Yaa Akyempim Jantuah, Director, Public Relations and External Affairs of PURC, said out of the total complaints, the Commission had been able to resolve a little over 1,000.

On the part of the ECG, the categories of complaints received included wrongful billing and disconnections, metering and general quality of service issues while complaints against the GWCL were no flow of water, pipe bursts, leakages and water quality among others.

Officials attribute the sudden increase in the trend to the awareness on the activities of the Commission, especially in the area of Complaints Handling and Resolution and the strengthening of the PURC’s monitoring role.

The PURC explained that complaints received were those which were unresolved by the Utility Service Providers.

The Commission urged all consumers of water and electricity to complain to the Commission if utility service providers were unable to resolve their complaints satisfactorily.

The PURC Act mandates it to receive and investigate complaints and settle disputes between consumers and public utilities.

Mr. Stephen Adu, Executive Secretary of the PURC, said part of the Commission’s role was to safeguard the interest of consumers by ensuring that the utility providers gave good and reliable quality of service, meet their performance standards and that all consumer problems were all addressed.