ECG Customers In Ashanti Demand Value For Money

Customers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in the Ashanti Region demand value for money as they complain of the worsened power supply [dumsor-dumsor]. The customers who are demanding accountability from the electricity suppliers citing poor quality of service rendered them in the absence of a new schedule, which should guide the load shedding exercise. The region is currently facing intense power cuts � with a six-hour-on; six-hour-off routine, with intermittent extreme low current. The prior timetable was scheduled to provide customers with 12-hour power out and 24-hour power on. However during the yuletide there was a drastic change in favour of customers as the situation stabilized. But with just 20 days into the new year, the worsened situation leads the public to question why ECG fails to fulfill their part of the bargain. Power producers, Volta River Authority (VRA), suppliers, Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) and the distributors (ECG) in the past attributed the crisis to either shortage of water level in the various dams and faulty machines. Frustrated Ashanti Regional clients in an interview, however said they were no longer interested in �excuses� from any of the three energy authorities. According to one of them, Reverend Aduarkye Anarkwa, the Ashanti Regional ECG �is not managing their monies well. If they had managed their funds well, we would not be going through what we are going through.� He added that, the Ashanti Regional electricity corporation is not having enough to buy the fuel that they need to buy. He also went further to ask that if that wasn�t the case then why �is it that it is not same in other regions like it is here.� `The Ashanti Regional ECG boss must be fired. They are taking us for granted because they think we are kids.� Opined Amankwah, another ECG client in the region. Another of the clients, Eunice, went as far as accusing the ECG officials of conniving with some clients to misuse public funds. The Ashanti Regional ECG spokesperson, Erasmus Kyere Baidoo maintained his stance that the problem was generation and not distribution thereby laying the blame on the doorstep of producers. Meanwhile, the Systems Control Manager at GRIDCo, Frank Okyere, also said it was a supply problem but the clients have a totally different view. They are therefore demanding concrete answers from authorities as to the real cause of the intensity of the �dumsor-dumsor� in the region.