ECG admits discrepancies in billing system

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has admitted to discrepancies in its new billing system, which has caused a huge public outcry.

However, the company says it cannot entirely stop using the new software as directed by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) because that will halt the whole billing process.

The General Manager (Public Relations) of the ECG, Mr William Boateng, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said the company and its consultants who worked on the software were currently conducting an audit to establish the anomalies or otherwise. 

'Depending on the outcome, we will let the public know and if we have to refund payments to them, we will do so,' he said.  

Billing irregularities 
The PURC ordered the ECG to suspend the use of its new billing software until further notice. 

In a statement issued in Accra last Tuesday, the commission said the order had been necessitated by the overwhelming complaints it had received from ECG customers regarding over-billing. 

It said the PURC, after a thorough investigation into complaints about over-billing, concluded that there were, indeed, anomalies in the implementation of the new billing software. 

It said one of the key issues that came to the fore during its monitoring and investigation exercise was the fact that the ECG was billing customers over irregular periods from 18 to 43 days, which was in contravention of the 28-day billing cycle.

The exercise, according to the statement, also indicated that 'some customers are billed above the PURC approved service charge and approved tariffs by the PURC in December 2015'.

Consequently, the Commission, among other things, ordered the ECG to appoint an independent billing software expert to audit the new billing system and present a report on it.

It also directed the ECG to reconnect with immediate effect any customer who had been wrongfully billed and disconnected.

Switch-over
 'We are aware of the errors with the new billing system and we have admitted to them, but we don't think the PURC was telling us to stop using the system; it wants us to check the system and correct the discrepancies, which we are doing,' Mr Boateng said.

He further indicated that preliminary checks indicated that the switch-over from the use of Customer Billing and Information System (CBIS) to Commercial Management System (CMS), which is the latest and modern software for billing, was the cause.

As a result of the switch over, he said, while data were being transferred from the CBIS to the CMS, the same new system was also being used to bill customers at the same time and so there were some communication inconsistencies.

'Complex tariff structure'
Mr Boateng also raised concern over the tariff structure currently being implemented, saying it was one of the major problems working against the company.

He described the tariffs introduced by the PURC in December 2015 as complex.

The tariff structure, he said, was such that customers who consumed within 0-50kwh paid 34Gp per unit; 51-300kwh paid 67Gp per unit; 301-600kwh, 87Gp per unit, and 601 and above,  97Gp per unit.

He explained that by the existing tariff structure, customers who consumed 50kwh and below were 'heavily' subsidised because they were considered to be within the 'poor' group but they refunded the subsidised units immediately they crossed  the 50kwh line.

'Immediately you cross the 50 units within the month, your subsidy must be refunded and so about GH¢22 is deducted or recalculated so you move to the next expensive category, that is, from 34Gp to 67Gp per unit. 

'That means 50 units is GH¢17.66 while 51 units is GH¢40.02.

'That is why some prepaid customers think we are cheating them, but the ECG is only applying the new tariff regime,' he explained

 To resolve the challenges, he said, the ECG had submitted a proposal to the PURC to take a second look at the tariff structure and redress the issues.