An aspiring independent presidential candidate for the 2024 presidential election, Mr. Kofi Koranteng, says the utility bills of government institutions must be paid from their accounts monthly.
This, he said, would be the finest solution to what he termed as “constant embarrassment of this clear negligence” on the part of state institutions.
State institutions, including the Ghana Airport Company Limited, the Ho Airport, the Ghana Revenue Authority, and some tertiary institutions among others, are reportedly indebted to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
As part of efforts to recoup it losses, the ECG is currently embarking on a revenue mobilisation exercise, which has seen it cut off power supply to some government institutions for nonpayment of bills.
Reacting to the situation, Mr. Koranteng took to his Facebook wall and added his voice to the growing concerns from many Ghanaians about the penchant of many state institutions to evade paying utility bills.
He said: “All costs associated with operations and utilities by government agencies should be automatically drafted by providers from the agencies account of record at the end of every month.”
This, he claimed, would make the ECG financially stable and effective, because it would “stop this constant embarrassment of this clear negligence of our institutions.”
Speaking in a follow up interview with The Chronicle, Mr. Kofi Koranteng stated that some state institutions had mostly refused to pay their utility bills, because they had been allowed to get away with it without punishment.
Proffering a solution to the canker, he said: “There must be a system in place where at the end of every month, utility companies will automatically draft directly from the institutions’ accounts.”
As part of the digitisation drive, he posited that the manual process had not been effective, therefore, government must be committed to making the payment of utility bills by all state institutions go electronic.
He proposed that an automated system where bills would be paid promptly and directly from the institutions’ account would enable the institutions to pay attention to how they utilize the utilities.
To help address the situation, he indicated that there must be an assessment done on how the institutions use power and other utilities to prevent wastage.
“From my personal experience, I have seen abject waste of power and water everywhere I have gone and nobody cares. In these agencies, there must be supervisors who will be making sure that systems are running,” he posited.
To him, the supervisors would be held accountable and responsible if they fail to ensure that the right things were done at any government institutions regarding the usage and wastage of utilities.
Mr. Koranteng intimated that this would prevent over usage and wastage of utilities because air conditioners and electric fans would not be turned on while doors and windows would be opened among others.
He pledged his total support to the ECG for the exercise and appealed to institutions affected by the exercise support the ECG to mobilise enough revenue for effective and efficient service.
