A LESSON TO THE UTILITIES (JUNE 4, 2010)

IN what can aptly be described as a landmark ruling, the Kumasi High Court has ordered the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to pay GH¢22,030 in general and special damages to a resident of Kumasi for the illegal disconnection of electricity to his residence.
The court also awarded GH¢2,000 costs against the ECG.
Nana Paul Kwame Boateng, a resident of Ayigya in Kumasi, had filed a suit at the court, claiming damages for the illegal disconnection, which had resulted in prescribed drugs for his sustenance in his refrigerator being destroyed.
The treatment meted out by the ECG to Nana Boateng, who had paid his bill seven clear days before the disconnection took place, is so common a practice in dealings of the ECG with its customers that many tend to believe that when it comes to the payment of electricity bills and the threat of disconnection, the onus is on the consumer to prove payment.
Thus the common practice in this country is that whenever the ECG and the other utility companies decide to undertake disconnection exercises as a way of collecting customer debts, the announcement on radio, if there is any, is to ask domestic customers leaving their homes to leave their bills behind as evidence of payment to show to ECG staff undertaking the exercise, failure of which they risk disconnection.
So much wonder that in this day of high technology when bills are generated from computers, when the ECG purportedly stores data of its customers in its computers, it cannot compile its data and its staff carry along a list of defaulting consumers, particularly in metropolitan areas such as Accra and Kumasi, when undertaking such exercises.
While in the distant past members of the public showed great tolerance and goodwill to the ECG as it battled with challenges such as inadequate capitalisation leading to inefficient services, illegal connections leading to loss of revenue and load shedding as a result of low levels of water in the Akosombo Dam, the company does not seem to be doing much to reciprocate this good public gesture.
The loss to consumers as a result of long power outages which affect the jobs of many artisans, not to mention industry, erratic power supply which has led to the destruction of household appliances, particularly those belonging to workers who are out of the house for a greater part of the day, just to mention a few, seem not to bother the ECG because these problems continue unabated.
The ruling of the Kumasi High Court against the ECG should serve as a wake-up call to the company, and for that matter the other utility companies, that the public is now very much aware of its rights as much as it is of its responsibilities.
For this reason, the ECG and the other utilities must henceforth do what is right and proper by providing bills for their customers on time, knowing defaulters before embarking on any disconnection exercise and also providing good and better services for the public.