…For Non-Payment Of ECG Bills

By Alfred K. Dogbey

The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) station at Akatsi, in the Volta Region, which transmits visuals to television sets to the people of Akatsi, Keta, Aflao, Denu, Sogakope and the surrounding rural communities, has been disconnected from electricity supply for non-payment of bills.

The disconnection which was carried out by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in Akatsi, according to reliable sources within GBC and ECG, took place a couple of months ago, denying the people of the area, who are citizens of Ghana, access to information on events in other parts of the country.

The Herald visited the transmission station last week Thursday, September 22, to double-check the claim that a very large area of the Volta Region has been cut off from National television, confirming the embarrassing situation in Twenty First Century Ghana.

This paper was again informed that the Amedzofe GBC station which also serves northern part of the region including Kpando, Hohoe, Ho and others has also been shut down since July, this year, and therefore, the whole region has been cut off from accessing the station which prides itself as the station with a nationwide coverage.

At 7 pm the same day, the entire GBC compound in Akatsi was in total darkness without a soul of security personnel around to protect the equipment belonging to the state-owned corporation.

It was later found out that, the securityman there was on leave, compelling the authorities at the station to seek the services of a former labourer of the station who was sacked, to take over the security duty.

Efforts made by this reporter to meet the Officer-in- Charge of Transmission (OCT) at the station, Mr. Shine Fiagbedzi, the following day to inquire about the paper’s information about the electricity disconnections proved futile, as at about 11:00am he had not reported for work.

When The Herald eventually got Mr. Shine through a phone call for an interview, he conceded that “indeed, the electricity power has been disconnected for two months now, for non-payment of ECG bill”.

According to him, the matter has been reported to the Regional Director based in Ho, Mr. Ralph Quarshie Avornyo, “but the payment has not yet been effected,” Mr. Shine said.

In the interim, the O.C.T told The Herald that the regional office has been providing the Akatsi office with fuel to power a faulty stand-by generator which is only able to “telecast only the vital programmes, for a few hours,” after which they go off air.

He disclosed that “the evening transmission, as at now, starts somewhere around 6:45pm, to the end of 7:00pm major news bulletin,” and they are off again because they cannot bear the fuel price.

When the paper followed up to the regional office, in a telephone interview, the regional director told The Herald last Tuesday: “Yes, this is a fact, we have been disconnected, and we’re on a process to settle with the debt”.

He confirmed supplying “fuel to the transmission station regularly which they used for transmission,” but The Herald swiftly reminded the Regional Director, that for the whole of last week, there was no single transmission at all.

Mr. Avornyo conceded, saying: “I’ve been informed the generator had broken down for a couple of days now and that technicians are working on it, adding that, your checks are true”.

The Herald gathered, even as at the time the station was using generator for transmission, that there were irregularities in the station’s purported telecast of vital programmes such as the GTV Breakfast Show.

Mr. Avornyo gave assurance that GBC would soon clear up the debt, and also repair the stand-by generator for full-time transmission and broadcasting to begin.

Meanwhile, intelligent information picked by The Herald during its visit to the station indicates that the fuel which the regional Director supplied to the Akatsi GBC for the transmission has always been drained secretly from the drum by some greedy staffs and sold to cornmeal machine operators in the surrounding communities.

Reports were that the fuel stealing habit has been in existence since the tenure of Mr. Tetteh Mensah, the former O.C.T, and later got intensified after the death of Mr. Easy Agbodze, a former technician then in charge.

But Mr. Fiagbedzi denied having any knowledge of such a deal, adding the fuel has always been kept safe, and that he doubts if this could be happening, especially under his watch.

Stay in touch, as The Herald uncovers some activities going on at the Akatsi GBC Transmission station.