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Intermittent black-outs:PURC to pay for damaged appliances
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot

The Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) has announced that if it is established that a customer’s gadget or appliance is destroyed due to power outages or intermittent disruptions, that utility provider will be made to either replace the gadgets or pay for the damage caused.

The PURC will also ensure that any customer overbilled will have the difference refunded, Executive Secretary of the Commission, Stephen Adu, told journalists in Accra at a meeting to review its activities in 2009.

Mr Adu recalled that some time last year the PURC facilitated the refund of excess money to a customer of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) who has been overbilled and also compensated a customer at Tema whose company’s machines had been damaged through power outages. He said GH¢1,700 was paid to the company which lost its equipment through power outages.

Mr Adu said the commission had received a number of complaints about poor operations of utility service providers and assured the public that the Commission would not hesitate to apply sanctions where necessary.

He noted that customers could not be disconnected at weekends or holidays, adding, that could only be done between Mondays and Fridays.

In situations where a customer applies for a service to be offered, the customer should at least within five working days, get a feedback, the PURC said and added: “We need to re-brand and re-position ourselves and we would make sure that the services they provide are standard.”

He urged the service providers to adopt a communications strategy to quickly inform customers of faults or problems. Mr Adu said the PURC would this year, intensify monitoring of the utility providers to ensure that they operate in accordance to their mandates.

Ghanadot