PURC gets GHS5.7m as compensations for customers in 2021

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) last year secured GHS5,778,379.20 as compensation for consumers of electricity and water.

The Commission said the amount was paid to both households and industrial consumers of electricity and water across the country after it investigated complaints on the quality of service, largely, power outages and water cuts.

It also recouped GHS548,383 within the same period for the utility service providers – Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) over illegal connections and non-payment of utility bills.

Alhaji Abukari Jabaru, Director, Regional Operations, PURC, said this on Saturday at the Commission’s media fellowship training at Prampram in the Greater Accra Region.

He noted that the non-payment of bills was largely observed in Government agencies. The fellowship is to make the media abreast of the operations of PURC, including tariff setting, complaint resolution and database management.

It is also to get support from key stakeholders in balancing the interest between utility service providers and consumers to ensure that while service providers were profitable, consumers were also given quality services.

Alhaji Jabaru indicated that the Commission in 2021 received 10,987 complaints and had resolved 10,701, representing 97.3 per cent, with the remaining 286 in the process of being resolved.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of the programme, Dr Ishmael Ackah, the Executive Secretary of PURC, encouraged journalists to work closely with the Commission for the benefit of all stakeholders.