The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) in the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo regions recovered GHC24,948,151.84 million from consumers to the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) in 2022.
Mr Patrick Antwi, the Regional Manager, PURC, (for the three regions) disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of Consumer Service Clinic (CSC) organised by the regional office of the Commission in Sunyani.
He said the Commission further assisted consumers to retrieve GHC42,378.49 from NEDCo and GHC1,405.78 from the Ghana Water Company Limited amounting to GHC43,784.27 within the year.
Mr Antwi explained that 1,076 complaints were received with 1,062 of them resolved leaving 14 outstanding, while the GWCL had 149 complaints, all resolved.
The complaints comprised quality of service supply, consumer service delivery, billing, metering, unlawful disconnection, damaged properties and payment among others.
Through the PURC’s activities, 1,296 poles of NEDCo were replaced, 22 transformers were injected, 10 transformer upgrades were done, 4,659 meters were replaced, while 5,500 meters of the GWCL were replaced in 2022.
Mr Antwi said innovations introduced included ‘mpu ne mpu” where educational videos of questions asked by consumers were shared to strengthen operations, campaigns on illegal connection and payment of bills, intensifying education in Self Help Electrification Project (SHEP ), and training utility service providers on good customer service delivery.
This year the Commission would focus on four thematic areas: “Operation pitch camp”, where staff would visit utility providers to ascertain their operational activities, ”Know your consumption” , “PURC is here” which seeks to publicise the Commission in the three administrative regions, and ”Customer Service week” intended to improve customer satisfaction.