Consumers in the Eastern Region have called on utility providers, especially Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Ghana Water Company to promptly attend to complaints made to them.
They said even though they were satisfied with the utility companies attending to complaints, they did so late which caused some inconveniences to the consumers.
The customers made these concerns at this year’s Customer Service Clinic organised by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) in Koforidua.
The clinic was organised to enable utility providers educate consumers on services provided and to also enable consumers make known their concerns for them to be addressed.
The Eastern Regional Secretary of the Ghana Hairdressers and Beautician Association, Ms Marylyn Wilson explained “we use their services to work and sometimes you go to work and realise there is a problem. You complain to them and it takes days for them to come and solve the problem for you.”
That, she said, was affecting her members businesses negatively and pleaded that the utility companies respond quickly when they get complains.
The Assembly Member for Two Streams in Koforidua, Citizen Kofi Tetteh urged the utility providers to frequently interact with road contractors to promptly address problems that may arise as a result of road construction.
He said most of the time, construction of roads results in burst of water pipes or pulling down of ECG lines, adding “because there is no interaction between the two, a burst or pulling down of ECG lines is always left undone for long periods and it affect consumers.”
He stated the need for interaction between the two to enable rapid response to solving such problems.
Citizen Tetteh also complained about the ECG app, explaining that it was sometimes unreliable and cumbersome to use and called on them to work on it for easy use.
The Eastern Regional Manager of the PURC, Mr Jude Aduamoah-Addo said concerns raised indicated that the utility providers should focus more on customer care and to promptly respond to cases.
“Feedbacks from our monitoring programmes especially from remote areas, indicated that consumers after making complains do not get rapid response and hence I urge the utility companies to improve upon their systems and deliver promptly,” he stated.
For health facilities, he said, it was necessary for utility companies to collaborate with the health institutions to ensure some stability in their utility supplies or alert them for other alternatives in order not to unfortunately lose lives as a result of lack of electricity or water.
Mr Aduamoah-Addo also urged the public to draw the PURC’s attention to any issue or concerns “so that we can be on the utility companies to promptly address them.”
FROM AMA TEKYIWAA AMPADU AGYEMAN, KOFORIDUA