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The government is to release GH₵200 million to settle its indebtedness to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), a senior official of the Ministry of Power has said.
 
The decision to release the money has been occasioned by an exercise embarked upon by the ECG to disconnect power supply to a number of government institutions and agencies.

A Communications Officer at the Ministry of Power, Mr Mckyntosh Essuman Aidoo, told the Daily Graphic that the money was expected to be released as soon as practicable.

Last Monday, the ECG embarked on a nationwide disconnection exercise to retrieve outstanding debts from its customers. 

Disconnection exercise 

As part of the exercise, the revamped Ayensu Starch Factory and the newly inaugurated Cape Coast Stadium were disconnected.

The Cape Coast Sports Stadium is indebted to the ECG to the tune of GH¢719,792.46, while the Cape Coast Polytechnic  owes the ECG GH¢1,017,542.

Following the disconnection of power to some government institutions, the Ministry of Power, in a statement, directed the ECG to temporarily halt the disconnection of some critical institutions in its mass disconnection exercise.

While the statement commended the ECG for its effort to collect outstanding bills owed it by various categories of customers, including state institutions, it said, “We wish to bring to your attention the government’s decision to temporarily exclude certain critical categories from pre-payment metering and the mass disconnection exercise.” 

Debts owed

Last  May, the acting Director of Finance of the ECG, Mr Frank Anokwafo, told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC)  of Parliament that the government owed the ECG GH¢950 million as a result of subsidies and non-payment of electricity bills, while private institutions and individuals owed GH¢610 million. 

The company has since embarked on a revenue mobilisation exercise to recover money owed it by defaulting institutions.