The President of Ghana Electrical Contractors Association (GECA) has attributed the electricity supply challenges facing Ghana to mismanagement among others in the operations of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
The Association wants ECG to desist from what it considers as the mismanagement of the company’s limited resources and ensure their efficient usage rather than burdening Ghanaians and businesses with tariff increases.
According to the President of GECA, Awal Sakib Mohammed, the main problem with ECG is the lack of an efficient system and mismanagement of resources. He cited an example with the difficulties that prepaid customers face such as not being able to purchase power due to technical challenges and some customers not paying for the use of electricity due to faulty meters that have not been replaced thereby leading to technical and revenue losses.
“We started implementing this prepaid metering system several years ago and till date we are facing these same old challenges?” He lamented.
The GECA president further questioned why in other jurisdictions, the same system is implemented smoothly and yet for so many years ECG has not gotten it right.
Mr. Awal Sakib expressed worry over why ECG is unable to pay its suppliers and contractors but managed to buy some two hundred motor bikes for another government institution at a time the company claims to find itself in financial difficulties.
“You owe people, but you are not able to pay to the extent that it is difficult for you to pay salaries, and we hear that you have gone to purchase about 200 motor bikes for another government institution. It doesn’t make sense to some of us” the GECA President told Helen Appiah Ampofo on the 3FM Sunrise Morning Show.
Again, the electrical contractors advised that considering the financial challenges ECG is facing, it is prudent for the company not to be flying some of its employees in first class to attend some training outside Ghana when they can equally be trained locally.
“ECG has one of the best facilities in Tema. So, you can bring down whichever trainer or facilitator to train your staff here locally so that you can cut down the cost”. There is so much mismanagement within their activities” he asserted.
GECA admits that indeed some of the challenges faced by ECG are purely technical which could be easily resolved by the power distribution company.
“We are saying that some losses are due to faulty and obsolete equipment on your network, so what you need to do is to invest adequately in appropriate equipment as much as possible. ECG must have a comprehensive plan to curb the losses rather than putting a transmitter here and there” the president of GECA mentioned.
By Samuel Afriyie Owusu|3news.com|Ghana
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