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The owner of a sachet water company in Accra, Michael Donkor, has accused officials of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), of stealing amounts of $84, 000 and Ghc 364, 000 during a raid on his factory.

According to Mr. Donkor, the officials from the GWCL, had invaded the factory on suspicion that they had been illegally connected to the national water grid and destroyed some of their equipment.

He added that they had also taken some of the equipment with them, including a couple of water processing machines.

“Ghana Water Company came and disconnected us for an accumulated bill of 1,500 cedis. When I came back, the information I had was that the officials from the Tanda District of GWCL said they are reconnecting their clients and fixing pre-paid meters on the lines so that nobody owes them. They kept on demanding that we pay 80 cedis flat rate every month to collect,” he told Citi News.

“Some people came and identified themselves as officers from GWCL and said they were disconnecting us because there was information that we had been connected illegally. They entered the factory and vandalised all pipe connections there and took away two water processing machines and one pumping machine. Later, when I entered my room, I saw that they had taken my money of 364, 000 cedis and 84, 000 dollars.”

He also confirmed that he had reported the matter to the police.

GWCL denies theft claims

The Ghana Water Company has denied the claims, stating that its officers had raided the factory following a tip-off that they were illegally connected to the grid.

The Communications Manager of the GWCL, Nana Yaw Barimah Barnie, told Citi News that when their task-force got to the factory, the workers bolted leaving the building deserted.

“He was disconnected in 2011. Per the last bill we issued to him, he was owing GWCL 15, 400 cedis, which was why he was disconnected. About 3 weeks ago, on a Friday, our task-force in Accra East, received a tip-off that he was using the borehole as a decoy. When we got there, his workers and all the people in the place run away and left the place,” he said.

He added that the raid had been done with the help of the police so any claims that money had been stolen were false.

“We went there with the police. Because there was nobody there to arrest and because we could not get the man himself, we took away two sachet water producing machines and some polytanks also in the house, we took them to our office. If he tells the world or Ghanaians that GWCL staff have gone to his residence to steal money, it’s unthinkable because we went there with the police. There’s no way you can go to a place to do an exercise with the police and they’ll allow you to steal or the police themselves would steal. That’s not possible.”