The Parliament of Ghana has refuted assertions that it owes the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) electricity bills amounting to GH¢23 million.

According to Ebenezer Ahumah Djietror, the Deputy Clerk of Parliament in charge of the Corporate and Financial Management Services Division, parliament has paid all of the outstanding debts it owns ECG.

He said that ECG is claiming that parliament owes it because the settlement of the debts had not yet reflected in the company’s accounts.

“As far as we are concerned, we’ve made payment. All the payments we have made, some have not reflected in their system. That’s what I’m saying - some do not reflect in their system.

“We have a breakdown, so we showed it to the deputy managing director (of ECG). We are just coming from his office, that this is what we have done… Any time they come around, they say we owe and we say no, this is it, let us reconcile accounts,” the deputy clerk said.

He added “So, what we have decided to do is to meet and reconcile. We are going to get the bank to extract all the payments we’ve made in terms of the dates. I’m not sure how it’s captured, so there’s a gap in terms of the reconciliation as to what is the outstanding bill.”

Ahumah Djietror also said that the GH¢12 million outstanding debt that parliament owes ECG was cleared on February 27, 2024, using the government's GIFMIS platform, but this payment has still not reflected in the company’s accounts.

He said that it was unfortunate that the ECG cut power to parliament because it put the lives of Members of Parliament and staff of the Parliamentary Service, who were using elevators, at risk.

Electricity supply to Parliament House and Job 600, the office complex for Members of Parliament, was disconnected due to the GH¢23 million debt, on Thursday, February 29, 2024.

The National Taskforce of the ECG executed the disconnection following unsuccessful attempts to collect the outstanding arrears, the ECG stated.

This action is part of the ongoing 'Operation Zero Balance' initiative by the Electricity Company of Ghana taskforce, aimed at recovering outstanding debts from various customers.

The ECG restored power to parliament after it claimed a substantial amount of the arrears owed were paid.

BAI/AE

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