Overbilling: MPs left ‘confused’ after meeting with ECG

Members of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament were left confused Friday May 27 after meeting with Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) officials.

The meeting, which was aimed at addressing anomalies in the billing system of consumers, followed Wednesday’s crunch Cabinet meeting which concluded with the setting up of an inter-agency taskforce to deal with concerns regarding ECG’s overbilling.

But Ranking Member of the Committee Mr K. T Hammond told Class News’ parliamentary correspondent Ekow Annan on Friday May 27 that he had been left more confused after meeting with officials of the service provider.

According to him, the presentation by ECG rather muddied the already murky situation.

“We are more confused than we came here… so they are going to have to come back. Seriously the issues are hydra-headed and they are so confusing that in the end I have not come out any wiser. I am not sure any of my colleagues has come out any wiser,” the Adansi Asokwa legislator said.

He continued: “We have asked them to come up with specific documentation. Specifically we are asking them to come out and come back with the details. If they had the details, we would have been happy to resolve some matters today. We wanted to know the situation before the increase in the tariffs and the various taxations. They have not been helpful with respect to that... I am not satisfied, I do not know who is satisfied… You heard some of them talking about political meters in the papers. What has political meters got to do with the issue that we are talking about? How does it contribute to you paying more than you are supposed to be paying? These are some of the matters we talked about.

“We asked ECG specifically…:‘What is the specific increase which has been brought about by the tariff and the various taxes…?’ What we are asking is that what was the status quo before this increase…? We are also trying to understand the correct figure…and how the levy element has compounded the situation?

“We are asking them to make a proper comparison with the previous one and again we are not getting that so we are asking them to come back… The actual thing that took all our time was what they call software. In the end, everybody was confused, so we probably need to bring some expert or so to explain.”

But Chairman of the Mines and Energy Committee Alhaji Amadu Sorogho was optimistic the committee would make some progress on Tuesday May 31 when ECG officials appear once more before them.