Ho Teaching and Municipal hospitals receive disconnection notice from ECG
The Ho Teaching and the Municipal hospitals have been served with disconnection notices by the state power provider, the Electricity Company of Ghana to settle their indebtedness to the Company within six working days.
The two major health institutions in the regional capital, Ho, risked being disconnected from the national grid on Monday, April 3, this year, for accruing debt of unpaid power of GH¢1.8 Million from 2021 till date.
ECG’s letter to the two health facilities and sighted by Ghana News Agency (GNA), partly read “We are compelled to serve you a disconnection notice in accordance with PURC Regulations LI 2413, 37, sub regulation (2), which states that a public utility that seeks to disconnect a service under paragraphs (b) and (c) of Sub regulation (1) shall give the consumer written notice of disconnection at least three working days before disconnecting the service. In line with the above regulation, you are required to settle all arrears within six working days, or your facility will be disconnected on Monday, April.
In an interview with GNA, Mr Michael Buabin, the acting General Manager of ECG in the Volta Region, reiterated that ECG as a company does not take delight in disconnecting customers.
“We buy and sell power hence the more a customer consumes power, the more the company makes money, so we don’t take delight in disconnecting customers since we don’t get revenue from unserved power. However, disconnection which is mostly the last resort is carried out to prevent the customer from accruing more debt and to enable the company to gather more revenue to keep the electricity supply chain running.”
The debt profile of these two facilities keeps increasing due to the fact that no payment has been made since 2021.
“If they were paying something small every month, I think their debt profile will be very low or at least lower than the current figure”.
Mr Buabin added that “We also know that these hospitals are sensitive facilities hence we have had several engagements with them to enable them settle their arrears before issuing this disconnection notice.”
“These are sensitive facilities that need the power to operate, but if ECG fails to meet its target, which includes their debt, it could affect the electricity supply chain, which could consequently affect the economy through the unavailability of power, hence we are appealing to them to start making some payment.
“We are hoping for a positive response from these facilities before Monday, 3rd April,2023 to prevent any form of disconnection.
“The ECG is appealing to all customers to make the payment of electricity bills as one of their topmost priorities to enable the company keep the electricity supply chain since the revenue ECG gathers from customers keep our lights on,” Mr Buabin said.
Mr Amos Dzah, Public Relations Officer of HTH told the GNA management was meeting over the matter and hopes for a resolution soon.
The ECG is embarking on a one-month nationwide exercise to retrieve about GH¢5.7 billion from its debtors with about GH¢220 million in the Volta Region.
Source: GNA