How Some Ghana Electricity Corporation Staff/Electricians Recently Duped My Sisters In Kumasi

In Ghana, corruption has become so ramified and inhered in the very fabric of the Ghanaian being. Therefore, without each person playing their part, it will not only be a herculean task for a President or Government to uproot it from the society but also, a fruitless attempt that will have failed well ahead of even starting it. This is why I have started something which I need to focus on in case it will yield better results or become an effective tool to use to deal corruption a deadly blow.

Yes, we can get rid of corruption provided everyone will do their bit to stop that nonsensical belief of “Ghana dee saa” way of doing things that is exacerbating corruption in Ghana. Here is how some electricians from Ghana Electricity Corporation (GEC) swindled my sisters about two or three weeks ago in Kumasi. They should count themselves lucky that I was not around or else, I would have caused their arrest there and then and pursued the case until they lost their job.

It happened in Kumasi. The electric wires on one of the teak electric poles purchased by my sister to draw power from the main road electric poles to her house became faulty for a reason or the other. My eldest sister in Ghana phoned up the GEC. When they came, they asked for a fee of GHS600.00 before they would repair the damage. My sister bargained with them and it came up to GHS350.00. They went and came back to repair it the next day. Luckily, one of my sisters had returned from Europe to Ghana and was home when the electricians asked for the payment. She told them she was not going to pay them a pesewa since it is their responsibility to repair such electric faults.

Listen to what the GEC staff or electricians said. The poles were bought by you and so they are private. If they were the government’s, then we would not charge you for the repairs but since they are private, you need to pay for it. As my sister from Europe was arguing with them with intent not to pay since GEC are duty-bound to repair the damage, the one in Ghana who although had returned from Europe to stay in Ghana since 2007, told the younger sister to pay citing the “Ghana dee saa” nonsense. If you don’t pay them, in future when there is a fault and we call them, they won’t come, she said.

Finally, she paid them GHS150.00. They drove off without issuing them a receipt so this goes to tell the money was going into the pocket of the two electricians that attended.

Let me educate Ghanaians here since for lack of knowledge, my people perish. Listen to this story before I explain the users’ rights to them. Once in Kumawu, when I needed to draw electricity to my house where cables and electric poles were to be purchased, the electrician informed me once you install the poles and cables, anyone in future can use the poles and draw power from the cables. They cease to become yours. They cease to be private but public property.

Being an European trained electrical engineer/electrician, I laughed and said, hold on, it is not my duty to purchase about ten poles, purchase service cables to install for them to immediately become public property. The poles and cables are to be provided by the Electricity Corporation as far as the pavement or the wall of my house. The cost to be borne by the house owner is drawing a cable from the service point, thus, the proximity of my wall to the house. Anything, or any cost relating to the service cable and downwards to the generators of the Service provider (GEC) is the responsibility of the service provider which is the GEC.

If I should purchase any poles and service cables for such a long distance, the corporation will have to refund the cost to me. They are providing a service for payment as a company so they have to provide all the needed poles and cables and it is by so doing that they can get more customers and in the end earn more income. As I know how providing electricity operates in Europe and being in the field myself, the staff from GEC finally agreed that yes, it is their duty to provide the poles and cables to a point closer to your house.

Back to my sisters’ story, the fault they came to repair fell within the Service provider’s domain. If it had to do with the cable from the service point right in front of her house into the house and onto the Electric Meter and beyond (within the house), then yes, my sisters must incur the cost. Should a service fuse blow (short circuited), it is the service provide to replace it at no cost to the consumer . It is only when a circuit breaker or circuit fuse blows that the house owner bears the cost or when any electric wiring or fault within the house itself occurs.

There are laws and rights that the Ghanaian power consumers are not conversant with. Once, in Ghana with then power outages that happened at the whim and caprices of the GEC unannounced, when some fridges and other items in my brother’s house got damaged as a result of the surge current that comes along with the power being switched on by GEC at that incessant off and on rate, prior to what became as the infamous “dumsor”, I told the household I will make sure GEC pay for the items. I went straight to their office at Dechemso and when I explained my mission and regulations pertaining to power supply and consumption and that they will have to pay for the damaged items, they started shivering like a leaf come under intense blowing wind. They started pleading with me and referred me to their boss’ office at Adum near the Post Office. Unluckily for me, when I went there, I was told the boss had travelled and would be back in three days but I had to leave Kumasi the next day to Accra to fly out of Ghana.

As time went on, they started announcing in advance where there were going to be power outage. This will make people switch off their electrical appliances since power surges can even set some of the appliances on fire if they happened to be turned on when the power comes back on.

For the electricians to have collected the money was wrong. For them not to have issued my sisters any receipt was a theft. The office knew it was a job to be done by GEC at no cost to the customer but here were two crooks extorting money from innocent consumers in the stupid belief that if you don’t pay them, in future if you need them they won’t come. The corporation is running a service for profit and they are obliged to respond to faults that will cause them to lose money or of which they are obliged to attend.

Until Ghanaians stop their fear of the “Ghana dee saa” which allows crooks to play on their intelligence, exploit them to enrich themselves corruptibly, we can never reduce corruption let alone, uproot it completely. We have to challenge and report such fellows.

In my Kumawu case, the GCE finally provided the poles and the cables. At times what they do is, if you buy the poles and the cables which they will make you understand that once installed they are no longer yours but have become a public property, they secretly prepare an invoice as though the corporation had bought them. Subsequently, a few conniving staff members at the office will withdraw the money from the companies account and share it among themselves behind the back of the consumer who actually bought the materials (poles and cables). This is how clever those engaged in corrupt practices are. However, we shall all assist the President to nail them.

Once anyone is reported, and proof provided, the government must ensure that the person is sacked and prosecuted. If the government does not take strict action, fighting corruption will become a joke.

My advice to every Ghanaian is to secretly switch your smart phones on to recording when you are dealing with someone where surely the person will try to defraud you. This will let you have evidence to use against him or her.

I have made it my duty to educate Ghanaians to know their rights so that no Tom, Dick and Harry can continue to cheat them. I share and support the vision of His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to fighting corruption hence all these efforts I am expending. Secretly take the registration numbers of the cars the cheaters drive in to your homes to dupe you. Let us be smarter than them and God willing, we shall defeat them.

Rockson Adofo