…as it intensifies public education
By Ernest Bako WUBONTO
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Volta/Oti Regional Office, has intensified its public education activities, engaging about 5,482 stakeholders and the general consuming public, In the third quarter of 2024.
The initiative aims to create awareness and educate utility service consumers on best practices to reduce consumption, prevent wastage, and eliminate electrocution risks.
The office organised about 45 educational and awareness creation programmes, using various platforms to educate stakeholders about the Commission and its functions, rights and responsibilities of consumers as stipulated in LI 2413, among others, with some programmes done in collaboration with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Ghana Water Limited (GWL).
Service monitoring
Within this third quarter, the PURC office also monitored nine district offices and customer service centres of the regulated utilities in the region to enforce the standards of performance of the service providers.
The districts involved are Denu, Keta, Akatsi, Sogakope, and Ho for ECG, and Keta, Sogakope, Ho East, and Ho West for GWL, making a total of five centres for ECG and four for GWL.
Approximately 37 prepaid vending centers across various regions were monitored to assess whether the vendors were operating in compliance with established standards.
Regional Manager, PURC – Volta/Oti, Philip Agbezudor, emphasised that the broad stakeholder engagement strategies being used for public sensitization are to ensure consumers’ and services providers’ concerns are addressed amicably.
“To fulfill our regulatory mandate of monitoring the standards of performance for the provision of electricity and water, the Commission embarked on a Community Monitoring and Public Education programme in the Ho and Hohoe Operational Districts to access the performances of the service providers from the viewpoint of consumers as well,” he stated.
Consumer Complaints
The PURC regional office in the aforementioned quarter, received a total of 239 complaints filed against the ECG and the GWL. Out of this, 215 complaints making 89.96 percent were resolved during the period.
About 211 complaints representing 88.29 percent of the total complaints received were against the ECG whereas 28 complaints representing 11.71 percent were reported against the GWL. The remaining 10.04 percent are at various stages of resolution.
“ECG resolved 189 complaints making 89.57 percent whilst GWL responded to 26 constituting 92.86 percent.
As has always been the trend, a whopping 81.59 percent of the complaints to the office were about quality-of-service supply.
Next is billing with 12.13 percent mainly due to overbilling and bulk billing, followed by metering at 2.51 percent and unlawful disconnection at 2.09 percent. Consumer Service Delivery (CSD) and Payment recorded at 0.42 percent and other complaints at 0.84 percent.
Categories of Complaints Lodged – Volta/Oti Region
| Utility | Unlawful Disconnection | Payment | Quality of Service Supply | Metering | Billing | CSD | Other | Total |
| ECG | 5 | 1 | 167 | 6 | 29 | 1 | 2 | 211 |
| GWCL | – | – | 28 | – | – | 1 | – | 28 |
|
Total |
5 | 1 | 195 | 6 | 30 | 2 | 239 |
