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Mr Michael Baah, Eastern Regional General Manager of the Electricity Company (ECG)/PDS, has cautioned consumers against dealing with middlemen on the field and that anyone who does so do that at their own risk.

He said all payments were to be made at designated points and receipts demanded, adding that, “not even ECG/PDS staff that comes round to read or attend to faults on the meter are mandated to collect money”.

Mr Baah who is an Engineer was reacting to some complaints and allegations received from consumers in the rural areas on payments of monies to some people who posed as ECG/PDS staff moving round in some parts of the rural communities of the Eastern Region.

He said apart from the bonded cashiers who come with an electronic device to generate instant receipt once bills were collected in the rural communities, “no such persons have been authorized to collect any money whatsoever from our consumers”.

According to Mr. Baah, the bonded cashiers were special agents engaged by the ECG/PDS to collect electricity bills from consumers in the rural areas to ease their plight of travelling distances to the district offices to settle their bills.

He explained that even those agents were to collect only bills presented by the ECG/PDS and stressed that on no account should monies including reconnection fees, be paid to field staff.

On the allegation that some staff misbehaved towards customers at the district offices, he condemned the attitude and urged consumers to report any untoward behaviour by any staff to his outfit for immediate redress.

Mr Baah said PDS was mindful of its role as a service provider and the fact that its consumers would not countenance any staff that would do otherwise and urged the public to volunteer information for such persons to be punished to serve as a deterrent.