The Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Dr Clifford Braimah, has said due to the “compromised” SOFTtribe billing software used by the utility provider, some Ghanaians were given “outrageous” bills for water consumption.

Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, 28 November 2019, Dr Braimah noted that, for instance, the Member of Parliament for Mion in the Northern Region, Mr Mohammed Abdul-Aziz, was charged GHS10,000 within a period of three months for water consumption, a bill, he said the lawmaker complained about but had to pay because officials of GWCL threatened to disconnect him.

“You ask the MP for Mion in the Northern Region, he called me and said MD, I sent my brother to the house and just three months you have brought me a bill of GHS10,000, why? I asked him whether he paid and he said yes because they were threatening to disconnect him”, he recounted.

“Another lady called me; she is Naruratu Musa Saga, she said that at a point she was credited GHS3,000 on her bill. So, instead of her paying us the money, we rather owe her GHS3,000. She knew that was not her money that is why she spoke about it.

“Currently, myself, my deputy and my commercial chief manager who is now in Kumasi are solving a problem of a gentleman, one Quainoo, who lives at Airport Hills. He lives in Nigeria and the US and comes to Ghana once in a while and the bills they brought to him were so outrageous, so, he has brought a complaint and we are handling it. They were even charging him commercial [rates],” Dr Braimah told journalists.

On Monday, 25 November 2019, operatives of the National Security Secretariat besieged the offices of the local software developer.

During the raid, the armed National Security operatives confiscated mobile phones of SOFTtribe’s staff, as part of a move to secure the billing software of the GWCL, which, allegedly, had been held to ransom by the local IT giant after GWCL served notice that it intended ending a contractual agreement signed with the firm since 2016.

The Technical Director of SOFTtribe, Mr David Kwamena Bolton told Accra-based Joy FM in an interview that the men, who claimed they were National Security operatives, said they acted upon a court order which he alleged was unsigned and unsealed.

“They confiscated all our phones”, Mr Bolton said, adding: “Initially, they wanted to take our laptops then they decided not to take them”.

“So, currently, none of our technical staff or directors is with phones and we can’t operate as a company”, he told Daniel Dadzie on Tuesday, 26 November 2019.

According to him, one of the company’s technical staff has been detained “and taken to the Ghana Water Company head office.”

SOFTtribe is founded by Mr Herman Kojo Chinery-Hesse, a celebrated African technologist.