By the time one reads this editorial, the Electricity Company of Ghana will have began a nationwide exercise to retrieve a colossal amount of GHc5.7billion owed it by its customers.
The exercise, according to the company has become necessary because the utility company needed to collect the revenue to be able to support government to pay off its debt and for it to run efficient business.
Currently, we all know that the ECG has been bedeviled with numerous problems, some self-inflicted and others by external factors including sabotage by criminals as well as customers.
The Ghanaian Times is aware that the focus of the one month exercise is to retrieve revenue from customers who owe the company and to have the maximum impact, the company has decided to mobilise its entire staff nationwide to participate in the exercise.
"We are embarking on the exercise becausethrough digitalisation of ECG's operational and transactional systems,we have identified andnow have a clearer understanding of what has been missing in the numbers so we are taking one month to retrieve all revenue owed us", the Managing Director of the company,Mr Samuel DubikMahama, was quoted as saying in a brief interview with the Ghanaian Times at the weekend.
According to him, ECG could confidently say that it hada substantial amount to redeem from customers which could support the government in paying for various debts, including energy sector debts, instead of taking loans to pay for them.
"If we are able to retrieve this amount of money, it will go a long way to mitigate the economic challenge of this country," he said.
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The Managing Director said "the resolution of network challenges had given the company a better data of the trend analysis of customer transactions, which indicated that the targeted revenue inflow was in arrears since the last six (6) months, which we are poised to retrieve".
He said the entire ECG offices; including the Head office would be closed down for the exercise which is targeted at retrieving every pesewa.
"For the next one month, the job schedule of all ECG employees has changed to debt collectors. Every Tom, Dick and Harry is moving into the field to retrieve customer arrears owed ECG," he emphasised.
In our view, the Managing Director has articulated good reasons in support of the exercise and we wish that all Ghanaians would offer their support to ensure that the exercise is successful.
However, as said by the Managing Director, they may face obstacles in the field because some customers might resist the ECG officials' attempt to collect unpaid bills.
Our appeal is that all true patriots who wish to continue to enjoy uninterrupted supply of electricity should be willing to pay for it. The electricity that ECG supplies to homes and workplaces are very essential which we cannot do without.
It is, therefore, the responsibility of everyone who uses electricity to pay for it to ensure that the company stays in business and continues to provide the essential service in the most efficient manner.
It is our hope that, the exercise is successful and the staff who would be involved, would also exhibit high sense of integrity,transparency, openness and flexibility in dealing with customers.
This is an exercise that must bring all hands on deck to be successful for the benefit of the country.
