Prepaid Metre Crisis: PURC Should Go Beyond Their Threats On ECG

The Bongo Member of Parliament (MP) has charged the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to ensure that the Electricity Company of Ghana addresses challenges facing customers.

Edward Abambire Bawa said the utility regulator should not fail to crack the whip if the issues with prepaid cards are not resolved as directed.

Speaking to Evans Mensah on Joy FM’s Newsnite Thursday, the lawmaker said the PURC has to monitor ECG closely because it has has failed to solve some of its nagging challenges.

Related Article: Resolve prepaid meter crisis or face sanction – PURC to ECG

Residents of Dansoman, Korle Bu, Kaneshie and Achimota in Accra have had challenges purchasing prepaid credit since last Sunday.

Long queues have been forming at ECG offices since Monday with reported cases of customers collapsing after spending hours in the sweltering heat trying to purchase power.

ECG officials say the problem was caused by some technical challenges their system is facing and have assured customers of a swift resolution of the challenges.

Related Article: Prepaid meter crisis: 4 ECG customers in long queues collapse

But the PURC has given ECG up to Friday to fix the problems or face sanctions.

Executive Secretary of PURC, Maame Dufie Ofori said the nation’s power distributor has 24 hours to bring the situation under control.

“As the regulator, it is not a matter of just accepting what the ECG stated as the reason. We have the mandate to investigate [and] we’ve started working on it,” she told Joy News.

But the Bongo MP has criticised officials of ECG for failing to address the issue in a swift manner since last Sunday.

"I get a bit worried [because] there is no explanation for causes of data disappearance," he said, charging PURC to expedite investigations into the problem.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | AKABP