The Bono Regional Manager of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Mr. Patrick Antwi, has called on consumers in the Bono, Bono East, and Ahafo Regions to channel their complaints through the right mediums should there be any fire outbreak on electricity poles or transformers for the necessary action to be taken.
Mr. Patrick Antwi also commended the utility providers for improving their customer care services and asked that more should be done.
Mr. Antwi was speaking at the maiden Quarterly Review Meeting in Sunyani with the Management of Northern Distribution Company (NEDCo) Sunyani and Techiman area, and the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) in the Bono Region.
Mr. Patrick Antwi said the quarterly meetings will help the utility providers access themselves.
“The PURC has seen the need for this Quarterly review meeting as a means to assess the performance of regulated utilities every quarter, discuss challenges of regulated utilities and solutions that can be used to mitigate some of these challenges.”
On illegal connections, Mr. Antwi noted that “We as a Commission have seen the effect of illegal connection on your operations and the Commission is making efforts to help curb this issue. We have resolved to carry out more public education so that consumers can see the negative impact of their actions.”
He also reiterated that the Commission was ever ready as a regulator to work hand in hand with utility companies for services to be improved.
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission was set up as a multi-sectoral regulator by the government of Ghana in October 1997 under the Public Utilities Regulatory Act, 1997 (Act 538) as part of the utility sector reform process to regulate the provision of utility services in the electricity and water sectors.
The Area Engineer for NEDCo Sunyani area, Mr. Atta Amankwa, in his submission during the meeting stated that “We have noticed a trend of prank calls which is worrying. Before NEDCo will shut down a transformer or a feeder, we have to get a call from the Ghana National Fire Service indicating there is a problem before we can heed these instructions, especially in the wee hours. We do this because sometimes people can lure us to turn off the power supply by fabricating stories such as fire outbreaks in order to carry out their nefarious activities.”
These Quarterly review meetings would be carried out every quarter of the year. The second meeting would take place in June, 2022.
