K’dua Polytechnic students to pay utility bills
Students of the Koforidua Polytechnic are to pay utility bills from next semester.
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This is to enable the polytechnic authorities to offset its huge debts to the Electricity Company of Ghana(ECG) and the Ghana Water Company Limited and avert the consistent disconnection of electricity and water by the two utility companies to the school.
The finance department is currently working on modalities on the amount to be paid by each student.
Currently, the polytechnic has paid GH¢50,000 out of a total of GH¢812,000 owed the ECG, through an overdraft obtained from its bankers, while GH¢5,000 has also been paid to the GWCL out of its indebtedness of GH¢251,000.
Prompt payment
The Registrar of the Polytechnic, Nii Annang Mensah-Livingstone, who confirmed this in an interview, said in addition to those measures, the polytechnic had decided to promptly pay its bills from this month to February next year, while arrangements were made to settle the old bills from February, 2016.
He said the Ministry of Education was yet to respond to any of the letters sent to it on the way forward and indicated that the only alternative was to bill students to enable the polytechnic to keep on functioning.
"Currently, we rely on Internally Generated Funds for the payments of other services as the polytechnic has for two-and-half years not received any subvention from the government.
He commended the Eastern Regional Coordinating Council headed by the Regional Minister, Mr Antwi Boasiako Sekyere, for his role in resolving the issue with the two companies.
Background
The Koforidua Polytechnic has for sometime now been under pressure from the ECG and the GWCL over its inability to settle its indebtedness to the two utility companies.
The companies, particularly the ECG, has consistently disconnected power to the polytechnic which has made teaching and learning difficult.
