We will come, we will collect all the debts – ECG boss told the debt
The Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Samuel Dubik Mahama has told people and institutions that owe the company that a task force will collect all debts.
Mr Mahama said the company needed money to run operations.
Speaking on the Ghana Tonight program on TV3 on Wednesday, March 22, he said that there is a debt of GHS5.7 billion to the country’s electricity distributor.
He said the company would step up debt collection.
“Every month we would show up to collect the debt,” he said.
ECG has started a debt recovery exercise from Monday, March 20.
The company said it has introduced a digital system to ensure the amount of money received from the debt recovery exercise is directly monitored by the company’s Managing Director.
Mr. Mahama said he has so far been able to collect between 40 and 50 Million Cedis every day since the exercise started.
“I can make 40 to 50 million cedis per day, we expect to increase,” he said.
The task force visited institutions such as Parliament, the Ghana Arprort Company Limited (GACL) and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) as part of the debt recovery.
Speaking to journalists after the training on Monday, March 20, the Manager of External Communications of ECG, Laila Abubakar said, “The national task force is the one responsible for the state companies, ministries, departments and agencies and so we have gone with them, we opened Parliament House, they owe about GHS13million they committed to pay GHS8.5million, we saw evidence of that.
“We went to the Airpot Company of Ghana, they had arrears of GHS28 million, who made a payment of GHS10 million immediately when we got there, so we gave them 48 hours to pay in full.”
He added, “Currently, we are with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, they also owe about GHS 6 million, but they have explained that because of the way they operate, they will not be able to release the money. We will soon, they have had some discussions with the Minister Information and the National Media Commission together with the Ministry of Energy and there was some sort of agreement last year. However, the ECG point is that there is no movement in the outstanding debt.
“They have explained that they have a system and they will make money and pay because they have to find innovative ways to make money, so we have given them permission to leave within 48 hours.”
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Center for African Energy Policy (ACEP) Benjamin Baokye has told the ECG management to find a balance to take loans to companies by institutions while at the same time not creating disincentives for power consumption. .
He explained that ECG requires consumers to buy and use energy otherwise it will not make a profit.
That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t collect debt, he added.
Mr. Ben Boakye said this on TV3’s Ghana Tonight show on Tuesday, March 21 when he contributed to a discussion on ECG management’s efforts to recover debts.
Pru East Member of Parliament and former Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor also said the ECG was partly to blame for the debt owed by the institution.
He accused the company of being under pressure from government institutions not to take on debt.
Also speaking on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 on Tuesday, March 21, Dr. Donkor said about the cause of the debt from the ECG that “It is a problem of attitude. Many government institutions think that there is only one center and there may be settlement of debt… there used to be agency settlement arrangements but no more.
“ECG is partly to blame, before it has given in to various pressures from government institutions. When I was the Minister of Manpower, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the Ministry of Finance registered prepaid, if you pay prepaid you can’t accumulate debt unless there is a mistake, that’s the challenge.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana
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