Is the Private Sector ‘alone’ the Engine of Ghana's Growth? How can we tackle the inconsistencies and inefficiencies of public utility companies?

As citizens of this country were once more became saddened in the wake of the announcement by the managements of the Volta River Authority/Electricity Company of Ghana Ltd that from Monday August 28, 2006 there will be electricity load shedding.

This information was first heard on radio. The electricity company prepared a comprehensive programme of scheduling at very short notice to inform consumers about the absence of electricity or power outage in their localities.

Such that the National Load Shedding Programme for the first fifteen days was published on Tuesday, August 29, 2006 in the Daily Graphic from pages 26 to28 and 32.

This has happened before and many seem to have accepted the explanation given by the Electricity Company of Ghana Ltd (ECG) in good faith. The Volta River Authority (VRA) is concerned about the low water level in the Akosombo Dam thus it is unable to supply power at optimal levels.

This is better captured as “due to low inflows into the Volta Reservoir” the managements of the two establishments have embarked on a load shedding exercise.

As a reciprocal gesture certain heavy industrial concerns in the mining sector including Alcoa-Valco did announce voluntary cuts in their power needs by reducing their electricity consumption by as much as 35 per cent of current capacity.

I wish to say that in the midst of the scheduling/rescheduling of power and rampant power outages, there are basic but serious inefficiencies in the management of public utility companies in this country and this includes especially, the electricity company.

These companies continue to operate as if they are still battling with or are trapped in the web of problems faced by public sector agencies hence, their inefficiencies. After all we all know that no business pays taxes, if it does not make profit and can prove it.

The axiom that private sector companies make profit is tricky, because when it comes to public utility companies they serve in the least a dual purpose, if not to provide a multiplicity of outcomes.

These are the very reasons why many people have demanded a robust monitoring and management system essentially from government’s regulatory and oversight agencies/bodies.

A proper public sector oversight is required since government likewise corporate bodies have a social responsibility in the delivery of services to the people who are clients and customers respectively.

Currently, it seems government has totally shed this regulatory virtue thereby causing undue cost to the detriment of the end user in varying degrees and disguises, be it electricity supply, water, petroleum pricing, telephony/telecommunications, etc.

I will only deal with an aspect of what can go bitterly wrong in the electricity billing process and in the end jeopardize proper rate collection from customers.

For the simple reason that if someone feels cheated, the motivation or absence of it will mean not paying for what may seem to be due in the judgement of the utility company. You will see below a letter meant for the electricity company and it is a complaint about an improper billing. PO Box KT ### Kotobabi, Accra 08-08-2006 Officer-in-Charge Electricity Company of Ghana Customer Service Accra West Accra Dear Sir/Madam, RE: COMPLAINT/ BILL OVERCHARGE AND CORRECTION I have received a couple of bills from your office in the past four months which I do not agree with. Hence, I will require an explanation to the following unsatisfactory assessment on my billing account.

There are discrepancies in the astuteness of your meter readers and the accuracy in your meter readings if any, as I have generally observed.

By the way, I will like you to note that my current meter reading as I left home was 6947 today (in August) but in the bill received as far back as June read 8066.

Please note that this part is an insert: “Whereas on Sunday September 17, 2006 in the afternoon at about 2:00PM the meter read 7390,” this is an effort to just illustrate for the purpose of a better understanding of this paper.

The home is operating a domestic or residential account with your company. This means there is no store or any business concern attached to the property. Which should in no means be mistook for a commercial (non-residential) or an industrial account.

Before I proceed in detail I wish to first seek clarification on some expressions used on the bills, how and why they are expressed in the manner they are. These are:

1. What is the meaning of 300 @ 583.00 cedis in earlier (up to April) bills which otherwise, in the June bill was stated as 600 @ 583.00? Obviously, there are inconsistencies that need to be addressed.

2. How will you explain ..###?.. @1,018.00 which begun only from the May, 2006 bill? Even before you attempt to explain this, there was a bill that had 600 @ 583.00 as indicated above. Furthermore, what will be the interpretation for a most recent August bill with an expression like 111 @ 583.00?

I am aware and judiciously monitor my electricity energy or power consumption -“C,” so as to be in a reasonable range not overly exceeding say 300 units (e.g., kW/hr) per month.

3. I seek an explanation for the ‘E’ against the reading an April bill. There was an ‘E,’ in the reading as (5174E) for the “Present” reading that was used to prepare the bill.

For the purposes of this complain and my little knowledge of the terminologies you adopt, permit me to assume the ‘E,’ is either ‘Estimate’ or even an ‘Error’ in a purely mathematical sense.

In view of the above, I did observe that the so-called ‘Estimate or Error’ as I wish to call it occurred in April, 2006 and was subsequently carried forward to May, 2006. This representation on the house bill reflects a flaw in your officer’s recordings by my judgement.

I am aware that estimates may become necessary, but should not have been a regular feature. Even if that happened and the bill is paid reimbursement are made but when it becomes persistent, it breeds mistrust.

Especially, when I have regularly met your “meter reader” drop in the bill and/ but continuously does not read the new figures on the meter before he leaves.

Other observations confirmed reports from people at home, that the person who dropped-in the bill does not read the meter.

So the actual meter has ceased to be read by anyone in a long while now. I stand to be corrected but I would like you to correct this impression or you may disprove it.

Admittedly, some refund was recorded on the May, 2006 bill which did not seem to be the reality on the meter. It did not appear to me that your company does rely on your meters/-readings and you must only rely on your meters to run a successful business.

Therefore, I would have also wished that the said adjustment was carried through subsequent months, and I would like to know what the ‘actual’ is.

4. All the above and further computations below have given me cause to worry. Whereas, disagreeing with all the readings with ‘E’-‘Estimate’ which I prefer to call ‘Error.’

Just as it’s been occurring in both ‘Present’ and ‘Previous’ readings from May, June to July and probably might have even been so in August if the trend continues or remain to be recorded in the similar manner.

Please do see and reason-out the following:

In May 6796 ‘Present’ for June *- 5527E ‘Present’ for May * 1269E ? ~*This reflects an ‘Error’ that need to be corrected then, In June * 8066E ‘Present’ for July *- 6796E ‘Present’ for June * 1270E ? ~*Requires an adjustment, because the values for May and June could not be that close in my view

5. I also need an explanation for the basis or rather the results obtained for previous and current readings from April, through May to June when readings were not taken and had been represented as follows:

In April May *June *July August Previous 4874 5174 6796 E 9336 E 6907 Present -4581 -4581 -5174 -8066 E -9336 E 293 1553 1622 E 1270 E <2429>**

These figures have been taken with the consideration of the ‘E’-Estimate/Error as indicated earlier. Where < >** represents a negative value (a minus) an absolute deficit for which I am to be reimbursed.

Also you critically observe the “Previous” values above for *June, *July and *August you will notice that the July value is obnoxiously problematic. Whereas, I want to insist the error begun way back in May.

6. I contend that whereas, there has not been any change in electricity usage in the home, since April to date to cause a more than an 82 per cent increase in bills for May and June. I will therefore require a clarification from you. Yours sincerely,

James Worlator Doe ©

This letter was to be delivered to the ECG Accra West Office in case a verbal complain was not acceptable, but this did not materialize since the verbal complain was just as good.

I got to know later that had the letter been submitted, it would have had serious repercussions on certain officers of the company and its contractors. That’s by way.

I was made to wait for well over two hours for an officer to be dispatched to go with us to see to the complaint on site.

He was obliged to go with us on condition that I had a car to go with the officer. So we came with one ECG worker who I prefer to call Matt. He was had to be given a transport fare on his return journey to work from where I lived.

The fellow made first hand readings direct from the meter, checked and inserted some numbers onto the meter reading and bill distribution card.

In the meantime, I had unilaterally put a freeze or any payments on my bills for about three months until a solution was found.

As was the practice of the ECG, subsequent bills carried the usual a disconnection warning notice, in case of default after fourteen days. I couldn’t be bothered and I refused to honour the bills that came in, just as any one in my situation would have done.

I regretted not paying the bills for a period since that meant a loss to the company but the ECG had an equal or added responsibility to send in bills that correspond to what customers use.

Since just settling the fee as the bill comes would have meant an expression of my consent and a perpetuation of the error (E) thus a sanctioning of the deception.

Since I knew very well the meter was not seen to be read even when the ‘meter reader’ came by hence, without the data the office is compelled to use the estimated value.

By the way, I was promised that the bill will be reconciled on the August bill so in September, 2006 and rightly so I had received a bill that sought to correct the anomalies.

Hitherto, for all this while and for the wrong reasons my bill had skyrocketed from a few six hundred thousands of cedis monthly (e.g. March), even after full payments were made to a whooping 3.5 million cedis in July and after, apparently by no fault of ours.

Then when the matter was resolved I was finally given an accrued bill of 1.25 million cedis in August. This is as much 65 per cent less than what I was originally billed for. Hence, it was major success on my part and the effort had paid off.

So, I ask myself and every Ghanaian, how many more people are in the same predicament but may not be able to disentangle as I have done.

You are advised to rely on this model, a free of copyright and let no utility company cheat you again. If all of us can do this in every little way we could, we will be doing ourselves and the nation a lot of good and authorities will be more accountable.

My advise to all is, if you find an ‘E’ against the use rate in two to three consecutive times on your bill go to the electricity company’s office nearest to you for redress or an explanation. But also you should do some homework by studying the figures on the billing card and from the meter.

Who knows whether there are not some thousands of households and companies out there that are actually paying bills that they are not supposed to pay. In a worst case scenario, many people may be paying twice or more what is actually due them.

If the above situation persists at the electricity company it would have serious accounting implications. Whereas, the books of the ECG will be declaring loss, when the reality is there may be lax on the monitoring of their field officers. This situation could go a long way to affect the fortunes of the company.

I must say that I am satisfied by the resolution of my problem. Though, serious questions still remain for the ECG as a major public utility establishment supposed to power Ghana’s growth and development.

How many people in Ghana know that if you are using electricity at home (residential billing) and you exceed certain usage level per month you could be automatically be charged a commercial (or non-residential) rate?

It is also possible that a non-residential billing could be upgraded to industrial rate in a similar manner without prior notification or knowledge of the user I am told, but this need to be confirmed.

Even when I went to the ECG Accra West Pay Point to settle a bill early in the morning after waiting thirty minutes for the door to be opened at 8:00AM, on August 18, 2006 it did not seem like the ladies were in to work.

The long line of customers were frustrated to continue waiting whole morning because of an incident that unknowingly, the money counters and cash registers were out of order previously and had not been fixed we discovered.

For those equipment that even worked, they had only one socket that was functional to connect to, how could one accept such an excuse from a major electricity company like the ECG.

In conclusion, I wish to advise that all who think they have similar problems and does care should contact the electricity company to know the limit on their households or residential accounts among others.

Especially, in situations when you notice the first sign of an ‘E’ against ‘Present’ meter use value, you should start to query your provider. If you did, you would be surprised the millions of cedis you could save.

This state of affairs is unacceptable it requires education, serious public relations work by the ECG management and a better training of the field officers. Beware that refunds or reimbursements do not come cheap or easy.

What I have learnt is, whenever you find an ‘E’ on your bill it may mean the meter has not been read or has been previously read wrongly. The probable explanation could be strategic to shield someone’s inaccuracy.

It is possible that this practice will deliberately move one into a higher rate of billing. Therefore an ‘E’ is only the application of an ‘Estimated’ value, which is clearly a higher value than you actually use.

Why should the time for the distribution of bills be different from that of reading the meter? Why not consider sending bills by post rather by hand delivery?

Prospectively, field officers who read meters should carry GPS/GIS data recording system or e-metering. Such that when they punch-in the meter readings it is calculated and automatically recorded against the customers address/account at a central collecting point and stored on a computer.

I wish to also suggest that a study is conducted into why the “pay-as-you-go” or prepaid card system has caught up well in certain parts of the country especially in the north (e.g. Bawku and Wa) and in some poorer communities than in the central and southern belts of the country.

The same situation can not be said to be positive with certain parts of Accra where extensive experimentation took place in the well established residential areas. To the extent that some are opting out of the prepaid card system.

A reason for this could be that there is no incentive to a prepaid card use, other than the obvious fact that one can independently monitor electricity use. There is a need for more innovative ways to encourage prepaid electricity use.

Otherwise, if contracting of meter readers will have to continue then a more effective way should be devised to forestall the errors. Since I do not believe this test case is an isolated one. I did notice serious lack of cognitive acumen with some of the readers. These people deserve proper training.

Whereas, those who have meters to be read by someone else are not burdened by such a responsibility and do have an added advantage that they are using electricity on credit.

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.