By: Gloria Edinam Afful
The Eastern Regional office of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, PURC, received 324 complaints from customers for the first quarter of this year. Out of the number, 311 complaints representing 95.98 percent were resolved with 13 outstanding complaints at various stages of resolution.
The Eastern Regional Director of the PURC, Jude Aduamoah-Addo, made the revelation in an interview with a GBC Correspondent in Koforidua.
He indicated that the Electricity Company of Ghana, ECG, had 274 complaints lodged against it and was able to resolve 268 representing 97.81 percent while the Ghana Water Company Limited, GWCL, had 50 complaints of which 43 were resolved representing 86 percent.
Mr Aduamoah-Addo said 271 of the complaints were about quality of service including power outages, no flow of water, cable and transformer issues, low voltages, phase -off and power fluctuations among others.
This, he implied that customers were dissatisfied with the services rendered by the utility companies. The other categories of complaints, the Regional Director revealed are billing, payment, metering, disconnection, damaged properties and consumer service delivery.
Mr Aduamoah-Addo explained the channels of receiving the complaints.
He noted that Koforidua District recorded the highest number of 134 complaints out of the 274 lodged against ECG with Akwatia District recording the lowest number of one.
With regards to water, he said New Juaben East District had the highest of 22 out of the 50 complaints made while Asamankese District had one complaint which was the lowest.
Mr Aduamoah-Addo revealed that the GWCL has through his outfit’s intervention retrieved an amount of 326,093 cedis of over one million cedis debt owed by 48 SHSs in the region.
Mr Aduamoah-Addo reiterated that the Commission is committed to protecting the interest of consumers and utility providers by balancing consumer expectations with utility needs.
