Unpaid bills: Volta ECG, HTH and Municipal hospitals reach agreement

The Volta Regional Directorate of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has reached an agreement with the Ho Teaching and Municipal Hospitals over unpaid electricity bills by extending its disconnection deadline to next Wednesday, April 12, after a crunch meeting.

These health institutions jointly owe the state power provider some GH¢1.8 million, which they accrued since 2021.

The ECG issued a disconnection notice to the two Hospitals requiring settlement of all bills or risked being dropped from the national grid by Monday, April 3.

But the ECG, placed a human face to the bill debacle due to the essential services the institutions provided, gave an offer of deadline extension to April 12.

Mr Benjamin Obeng Antwi, the Regional Public Relations Officer of the Company, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency said, “We extended the deadline for Ho Teaching Hospital (HTH) and the Municipal Hospital to next week Wednesday purely on humanitarian grounds.”

He said the HTH had paid GH¢50,000 out of the 1.4 million arrears and pledged to make payment of GH¢40,000 per month, while Management of the Hospital engages with the Ministry of Health to clear the chunk of debts in their books.

This, he said, necessitated the extension of the deadline to meet their demands.

For the Municipal Hospital, Mr Antwi said Dr Kwesi Djokoto, the Acting Volta Regional Director of Health Services was trying to reach a deal with the Director General of Ghana Health Service for a resolution of the matter.

In a related development, the second week of ECG’s exercise for revenue mobilisation has raked in some GH¢21.5 million in the Volta region.

ECG is embarking on revenue mobilisation drive to retrieve a debt of GH¢5.7 billion across the country, which customers in Volta and Oti regions collectively owe about GH¢219 million.

The exercise, being undertaken in 11 operational districts across the two regions, is yielding the desired results with two more weeks to go.

The power Company has also served the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), a demand notice to redeem its indebtedness of GH¢17 million accrued in bills between 2021 till date, which deadline elapses Tuesday.