Ghana Government not to blame for failure to implement automatic adjustment formula.

 

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has debunked assertions that its inability to implement the automatic adjustment formula (AAF) was due to government interference.

 

Officials say that following the recent major tariff review process, the AAF will be implemented in January, 2014, taking into account existing tariffs.

According to the Executive Secretary of the PURC, Mr Samuel Sarpong, although the AAF was used in the past, the implementation of the scheme stalled in 2012, due to the accident which occurred on the West African Gas Pipeline, coupled with the fact that at the time, the commission was going through a major tariff review process.

"In view of the above, the commission did not deem it acceptable and fair to apply the formula in tariff increment when there was no definite timeline for the completion of the repair works on the gas pipelines”,  Mr Sarpong stated.

Addressing a press conference in Accra yesterday on the backdrop of assertions that the PURC had failed to implement the AAF since 2011, Mr Sarpong indicated that although in the second quarter of 2011, the commission reviewed tariffs using the formula, poor service to clients prompted officials not to pass it onto the consumers.

Quality of Service

The commission, which described service delivery by providers as “woefully unacceptable," particularly with the use of some pre-paid meters, had tasked the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Northern Electricity Development Company (NEDCo) to plan how it intended to address the problems reported by customers.

“Retrospective billing, high failure rate of fuses and pre-paid meters at Legon and Kwabenya districts, problematic deployment of pre-paid meters at Bortianor, Teshie-Nungua and inadequate training for frontline staff and credit vendors are challenges that need immediate attention”, the executive secretary said.

Mr Sarpong indicated that the challenges which were identified by the commission during a monitoring exercise it conducted after the announcement of the 78.9 per cent increase in electricity tariffs, further tasked the ECG and NEDCo to submit an action plan on how to address the above-mentioned challenges to the commission.

Source : Daily Graphic/Ghana