Pre-paid consumers of electricity at Sakumono and Tema Community 14 have protested against the poor service being provided by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG). Problems they are facing include the loss of energy purchased, malfunctioning of meters and the failure of the computerised system to hook them onto the grid on time, thereby depriving them of energy supply. They have accused the ECG of gross dereliction of duty, cheating and a poor response to concerns raised by them. According to the consumers, the ECG has been using them as scapegoats in its bid to introduce pre-paid meters into the system thus making them to suffer unduly without showing any concern for their plight when complaints are made. A random investigation conducted by the Daily Graphic indicated that while some of the meters were working, the amount of energy left was not indicated on them because the screens on which it was supposed to be displayed were blank and those which had functioning screens could not be read because they were unclear. According to them, they had received reports that some underground cables in the Sakumono area were damaged and that explained why they ran out of energy purchased so quickly. They stated that rumours were making the rounds that the meters in use would be replaced again but pointed out that they would resist that unless they were given meters that used the slot cards. Ms Celestine Atiemo, whose screen was blank, explained when the pre-paid system came into being, the meters introduced used cards containing energy purchased which were slotted to register energy bought, but these were later replaced with the current meters which were supposed to register power bought from a computerised system. She said the new meter operated for sometime and started giving her problems so she reported the matter to the Tema office of ECG and when the problem was rectified she lost ¢1OO,OOO worth of energy credit on that meter. "Now the major problem is that when you purchase energy it takes about one week before the computer hooks you to the grid and if you are unlucky it may not register and you would be in darkness", she lamented. Mr Yaw Setor, who had used the prepaid meter for about six years, experienced a similar problem and stated that when his meter developed a fault he was placed on the old credit system and was made to pay something exorbitant after several months. Another consumer, Mr Andrew Okai, who said he preferred the meter with the slot card to the one being used currently, said although whatever he purchased indicated on the screen of the meter the rate at which the meter ran was unbelievable and that he suspected something was wrong. "To make the matter worse the ECG people do not have good customer relations. They can choose to do what they like because of the monopoly they enjoy on the market." Mr Ernest Doe, who was very happy that the Daily Graphic had come to listen to their problems, stated that there had been a number of problems and attempts to get them solved had proved futile. He said because of persistent complaints to the ECG they had been given assurance to change the current meters to what he described as "pay and smile card", which is the best. Mrs Mary Mills, a shopkeeper, said she did not like the pre-paid meter because of the way it was being run and she would be happy if she was reverted to the credit system. "Initially I was paying between ¢80,000 and ¢lO0, OOO and now in less than a month I purchase ¢500,OOO which does not take me to the end of the month. They are cheating on some of us," she said. Mr Augustine Okrah, who spoke for a group of households in the same apartment, said the slot card system was the best because the computer system of hooking consumers to the grid could delay. Mr Okrah alleged that when electricity tariff were increased they took retrospect effect as far as pre-paid users were concerned and described that as injustice. A few consumers at Nungua who were still using the meter with slot card, however, commended the ECG for introducing it because it was efficient. According to Ms Grace Amoah, she had never experienced any problems since she started using it about three years ago except that when the reserve reaches 20 units the meter automatically went off for her to re-slot in the card. Source: Daily Graphic