"Government will restructure ECG" - President Mahama

President Mahama on Tuesday said government had initiated measures to restructure the Electricity Company of Ghana and to plug the loopholes that have over the years created financial loss to the company.

The restructuring of the company, the President cautioned, should not be misconstrued as privatization.

President Mahama said this when he hosted over 100 public, private and foreign journalists in his annual news conference programme to explain some government policies and future plans for the development of the country.

The President said government would initially inject $100 million dollars in the restructuring of the company to ensure that appropriate bills were paid to generate adequate funds.

He said the company lost over 25 percent of its revenue through illegal power connections and the restructuring system would ensure that all those losses were curtailed for the benefit of all Ghanaians.

President Mahama said although private individuals and companies owed the utility companies huge sums of money, the major offenders in this respect, were government Ministries, Departments and Agencies which the restructuring system would tackle.

Improvement in bill collections, the President said, would form a core part of the restructuring system of the company.

On corruption and human rights abuses, President Mahama said government would soon establish citizen complaints centres, where people who feel their rights have been trampled upon, could report with their details for follow-ups.

He said the centres would initially be staffed by National Service Personnel who would take up all complaints and report to the appropriate agencies to begin the investigations.

On the 2016 general election, President Mahama promised to provide adequate vehicles and logistics that would ensure an incident free poll slated for November 7 this year.

He said his administration was the first to initiate charges against government officials adding that various interrogations are underway and government would subsequently prosecute officials who would be found guilty of the allegations levelled against them.

"This is the only government dealing with corrupt officials during his tenure, unlike most cases when governments prosecuted former government officials after leaving office," he said.

President Mahama said the Ministry of Attorney General and Justice has so far retrieved about GHC70 million Cedis from some of the officials who had engaged in fraudulent activities.

He said 163 National Service Scheme Coordinators had also been dismissed for engaging in malpractices.

"As President of this country I am not going to engage in any blame game, but to deal with issues that would ensure sanity in the public system," President Mahama added.