Parliament is currently in discussion with officials from the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) over some GH¢13 million owed them.

The outcome of this discussion will determine whether the House stays connected to the national grid or is plunged into darkness.

A disconnection team is at the premises as the negotiations proceed.

This forms part of the Company’s bid to retrieve a total of about GH¢5.7 billion in unpaid bills across the country.

Parliament is initially advanced talks to pay GH¢1 million upfront out of its GH¢13 million debt in order to keep the lights on for now.

“It looks like Parliament is offering some GH¢1 million upfront to prevent the disconnection but the ECG will have none of that,” JoyNews’ James Avedzi said on the Midday News.

Parliament subsequently offered to pay GH¢8.5 million out of the total amount and later come out with a payment plan to pay the rest

The ECG on March 14, disconnected the power supply to the Energy Ministry which plunged the entire Ministry into darkness for almost half a day. 

According to the sources, power was, however, restored to the Ministry after it paid its debt bill in full.

The power distributor will from Monday, March 20, embark on a massive disconnection exercise in a bid to mobilise revenue.

The exercise is using almost all ECG staff from top management to junior officers to retrieve all the monies owed to them.

The Managing Director of ECG, Samuel Dubik Mahama, said the company is owed over GH¢5 billion from the month of September 2022 to February 2023.

He added that the agencies that would refuse to settle their bill immediately will face the same consequence as the Energy Ministry.