Consumers of electricity across the country have the right to stop officials of the electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) from disconnecting them on weekends, even if they owe billions of Ghana Cedis.
According to the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), the ECG and Ghana Water Company Limited have no right to disconnect consumers on Saturdays and Sundays as stipulated under the public Utilities Regulation Instrument, L.I 1651, passed in March 1999. The law states that, �A public utility may terminate the service to a consumer only between the hours of 8:00am and 5:00pm from Monday to Thursday in the week. �However, a public utility may terminate a service between the hours of 8:00am and 5:00 pm on Fridays� provided the public utility has facilities for reconnecting on Saturdays.�
The revelation comes at a time when the practice of rampant disconnections by personnel of the various utility services in most parts of the country, even on weekends, goes on unabated. The paper gathered that some agents deliberately storm the homes of consumers and areas where funerals have been slated on weekends with threat of disconnection to extort money from them, against the legal requirements regarding the service.
Nana Yaa Jantuah, the senior public relations and external affairs manager of the PURC, revealed in an exclusive interview with the Heritage newspaper yesterday that consumers ought to update themselves with their legal rights to ensure that they get value for their money. She said the utility providers cannot disconnect consumers on public holidays such as Christmas, Easter and Farmers Day and encouraged the general public to resist attempts by anybody to violate their rights.
The PR manager noted that the consumer reserves the right to stop personnel from ECG from disconnecting them on weekends, even if they owe the company. She said if attempts to protect one�s right failed, consumer have the opportunity to lodge a complaint at the PURC for appropriate redress. �We will speak to the utility providers to reconnect you and ask them to pay penalty for the wrongful disconnection,� he said. She further stressed that consumers are also required to play their party by desisting from illegal connection and pay their bills promptly to ensure better services from the utility providers.
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