The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission has directed the Electricity Company of Ghana to suspend the implementation of its new billing system 'until further notice.'

This comes after the government ordered the Commission to investigate anomalies which have resulted in astronomical increases in electricity bills.

Following the last adjustment in utility tariffs by the PURC in December 2015, many consumers have complained to the PURC and government about irregularities in their electricity billing.

Some consumers blamed the anomalies on the calibration of some new metres introduced by the ECG.

In a statement, the government said it shared the concerns of consumers. The statement said reports that the anomalies are affecting the income and operating costs for consumers are justified. Government, therefore, ordered the PURC to probe the anomalies.

Speaking to Joy News, the Public Affairs Director of the PURC, Nana Yaa Jantuah said the commission "through its monitoring exercise after visits to specific areas and interrogation of bills by the ECG came to a conclusion that there was an anomaly in the initial implementation of the new billing software."

A statement from the PURC listed the following as some key issues that came to the fore during their monitoring exercise:

• ECG is billing Customers over irregular Periods from 18 days - 43days which are in contravention of the 28-day billing cycle for the Customer.

• Some Customers are billed above the PURC approved Service Charge and the Approved Tariff by the PURC in December 2015

• ECG is billing Customers who have been disconnected over a period of six months with the accumulated debt figure instead of their monthly actual consumption

• More than 62% of Complaints received by the PURC in the first quarter of 2016 were on overbilling as compared to the previous year (18%).

• Customer Billing Data shows clearly that the ECG has challenges with migrating customer information from the old Billing System to the new Billing System(Software)

• Investigations also revealed that District Frontline Staff who are entrusted to issue customer Bills do not have the adequate technical capacity to accurately use  the  new  Billing  software, hence,  the  billing  anomalies customers are experiencing.

• With the new Billing Software, the Billing Cycle of some customers is over a period of four years(2015-2019)

• An Independent Billing Software Expert should be appointed to audit the new billing System currently being rolled out and present a report to the Commission within 10 working days.

Also, the commission recommends that the ECG trains frontline staff to enable them effectively implement and use the new billing software and correct all billing anomalies and re-bill all consumers who have been affected.

Lastly, a sensitization of the public on the implementation of the new billing system was recommended by the PURC.

Nana Yaa Jantuah assured the public that the Commission will make sure the ordered given to the ECG are implemented.