Kumasi: ECG cuts power to GBC for non-payment of bills

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has ignored an appeal from the Ministry of Information against disconnecting power to the state broadcaster, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), in Kumasi.
The ECG on Thursday cut electricity supply to the state broadcaster’s transmission station at Asokwa for non-payment of accumulated bills to the tune of GHS 1.7 million.
Luv FM’s Erastus Asare Donkor reports that the disconnection exercise turned chaotic when workers of GBC led by the Regional Manager, Sam Kwatia, deflated the vehicle tyres of the ECG disconnection team in a bid to frustrate the process, however, the ECG staff were not perturbed.

Public Relations Officers of the ECG in the Ashanti Region, Erasmus Baidoo, told Joy News the power company remains resolute in its effort to get the state broadcaster to pay for the power it has consumed.
He explained that several notices had been issued to GBC over its failure to pay the debts before Thursday’s decisive exercise.
“Each time we go there to demand payment, for some reason or the other, we are not getting anything from there,” Mr Baidoo said.

But Mr Kwatia accuses the power distributor of breaching a payment plan agreed upon by the two parties, disclosing that he will go to court to seek redress.
GBC transmissions have since Thursday evening been off.
Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid, had appealed to the Energy Ministry to cause the power company to stop the disconnection, but clearly, that did not work.
The power company have for some months now embarked on an aggressive exercise to cut power to state agencies who have failed to settle their bills.
The mass disconnection drive is seen as a response to claims that ECG’s financial constraints are due to its failure to get consumers, especially state agencies, to pay their bills.
The poor financials of the power company, along with other factors, has necessitated a concessionaire arrangement that has seen staff of the company fighting the government.
ECG staff fear that the privatisation will result in loss of jobs.