ECG calls for attitudinal change on part of workers

Koforidua, April 24, GNA - The National President of the Senior Staff Association (SSA) of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has expressed regret about bad practises affecting the effectiveness of the utility provider and called for a "road map" and attitudinal change on the part of workers.

Mr Twum Barima Boadu astounded the audience attending the opening ceremony of the 13th biennial congress of the SSA underway in Koforidua with an exceptionally frank expose of the problems plaguing ECG, blaming the quagmire partly on the inaction of members of the association. "As supervisors, we are the catalysts who must speed up the implementation and realization of management policies. How do we justify the installation of a meter which takes one year to be captured on billing profile? How can a customer pay a bill which has accumulated for one year?"

Mr Boadu expressed disapproval about the failure of SAS members to expeditiously process documentation for new clients, which, he said, oftentimes delay for more than six months.

"Why can't we collect our billed revenue? Why do we have such high commercial losses? What about our lackadaisical attitudes to faults intervention? For low long must prepayment customers be made to be in darkness when their meters develop fault?"

By the time Mr Boadu had finished with his speech, he did not only win the attention of a rather rapt audience, he warmed himself to the heart of the chairman of the ceremony, Odefour Boadi Asiedu, who described his forthrightness as a rarity among worker groups in Ghana.

Mr Boadu demanded of SAS members "a total attitudinal change, dedication to duty, and the spirit of selflessness which will place the corporate objectives of ECG above personal gains."

He attacked certain policies of ECG such as the third-party contractual agreements for meter-reading, explaining that the policy is "detrimental" to the company's operations because it affects the profitability of the ECG.

The Managing Director of the ECG, Mr Jude Adu Amankwa, shared the sentiments of the SSA noting that for the company to become very efficient, workers must discard bad habits to achieve results. He said the company would soon establish a national customer care centre to respond more effectively to customer concerns and bring about efficiency.

Mr Amankwa said the ECG was also working towards the establishment of an IT backbone to make it the most modernized power distributor in West African.