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| Mrs. Dufie Ofori |
Mr Kwasi Anokye, Legal Services Manager, at the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC), has asked workers of ECG and GWC to be abreast with their responsibilities and the regulatory provisions to enhance service delivery. He said that it is illegal for service providers to disconnect defaulting customers without giving them at least 28 days and an additional 14 days notice.
Mr. Anokye made the call at a two day workshop organized by the PURC for ECG/GWCL District and Commercial Managers from the Volta and Eastern Regions last week in Ho on the theme ‘Enhancing Performance’.
According to Mr Anokye, service providers could only disconnect their consumers from Mondays to Thursday between 8am and 5pm but said the service providers were permitted to disconnect customers on Fridays provided they were ready to re-connect at the weekends.
According to Mr Anokye, service providers could only disconnect their consumers from Mondays to Thursday between 8am and 5pm but said the service providers were permitted to disconnect customers on Fridays provided they were ready to re-connect at the weekends.
Mr Anokye said they could, however, disconnect their customers without notification in case of illegal connection or for safety and emergency purposes.
He said the law also provided that people above 65 years and consumers living with disabilities must be given a grace period of 30 days and an additional seven days notice before disconnection was effected.
Mr Anokye said consumers could demand compensations and penalties from the service providers if they do not comply with these legal provisions.
Dr. Simons Akorli, Director at the Regulatory Economics and Research Directorate of the PURC, said the re-introduction of the Automatic Adjustment Formula (AAF)-a PURC quarterly pricing mechanism, was to help resolve all tariff related issues.
He said the “PURC tariff policy was in the context of government policy” and called on all to support it.
The workshop according to Mrs Mami Dufie Ofori, Director of Consumer Services of the PURC, is intended to examine and discuss the commission’s regulatory strategies and benchmarks and how they impact the delivery of quality services to the customer.
She noted that previous workshops have impacted positively on the quality of customer service with the establishment of call centres, toll-free and the development of complaints code by service providers.
Mrs Dufie Ofori acknowledged the challenges being faced by service providers such as lack of adequate investment, poor consumer support, illegal connections and political interference and affirmed the PURC’s commitment to supporting the service providers.
She said more work needed to be done on consumer education, faults management, revenue loss control and staff attitude.
She therefore urged customers to be watch dogs and give the PURC periodic feedbacks on the service delivered by the utility providers.
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