PURC resolves 311 complaints in Eastern Region
The Eastern Regional Office of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has in the first quarter of this year resolved 311 complaints from electricity and water consumers in the region.
Advertisement
The PURC, which received 324 complaints from the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), has 13 outstanding complaints at various stages of resolution.
A total of 164 complaints were directly lodged with the PURC while 110 were initially directed to the ECG but due to unsatisfactory response and resolution, they had to be referred to the PURC.
The GWCL has 34 direct and 16 reported complaints filed against it.
Complaints
In an interview with the Daily Graphic at his Koforidua office earlier this month, the Regional Manager of the PURC, Jude Aduamaoh-Addo, said while the ECG had 274 complaints lodged against it and resolved 268, representing 97.81 per cent, the GWCL had 50 complaints and resolved 43 constituting 86 per cent.
He said while the New Juaben East District of the GWCL tops the complaints list with 22, Asamankese was the lowest with one complaint.
He said the 2023 complaints against the ECG on disputed bills amounted to GH¢27,916.71 from three customers and that with intervention from the PURC, the figure was adjusted to GH¢27,268.07.
He explained that out of the 324 complaints received, 271 were about quality of service such as power outages, no flow of water, cable and transformer issues, low voltage, face-off and power fluctuations.
Billing
Categorising the complaints, Mr Aduamaoh-Addo said 26 of them were associated with billing, five related to payments, 271 to quality of service, 12 to metering, six to disconnections, one to damaged properties and two to consumer service delivery.
He also told the Daily Graphic that the GWCL had lodged complaints against 48 senior high schools in the region for not paying their bills amounting to GH¢1.298,867.05.
He indicated that with the intervention of the PURC, GH¢326,093.64 had been recovered.
On how the complaints were channelled, the regional manager stated that 179 (55 per cent) of the total number of complaints lodged were received electronically, mostly on social media.
Consumers
Some electricity and water consumers told the Daily Graphic that while some people were of the view that the services provided in the region were good, others were not satisfied with it.
A restaurant operator in Koforidua, Cynthia Adjei, for instance, was not happy about the current power outages in Koforidua without prior notification which she explained had negatively affected her business.
She also said her tap was not frequently flowing and that had greatly affected her restaurant business since she needed the water seriously.
She, therefore, appealed to both ECG and GWCL to improve their services to make it more attractive to consumers to go about their daily activities.
Ms Adjei commended the PURC for intervening on behalf of the consumers to help improve their services in the region.
