99.8% of the complaints filed with the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURCCentral )'s Region office this year have been handled.

Only 12 of the 1,305 complaints the office received this year have not yet been handled.

The complaints included 939 concerns with the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), 308 issues with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), and 58 other complaints involving other users.

During a presentation at a customer service clinic the PURC organized for utility providers and consumers to interact with customers, Joyceline Hudson, a senior complaints officer of the Central Region PURC, made this statement.

The clinic provided a platform for utility providers to listen to customers and vice versa for resolution of complaints to improve transparency and cordiality between them.

About 200 participants, representing a cross section of the public from all over the region, attended the clinic.

Ms Hudson said the Central Region office of the PURC was also able to get about GH¢201,898 adjustments in payments for customers and utility providers and retrieved GH¢100,000 owed utility providers by customers.

She said the PURC would continue to work to ensure customer satisfaction while ensuring utility providers also had a good relationship with customers.

Commendation

The participants commended the PURC for the prompt response to complaints, saying their coming to the region was critical to solving challenges.

In an address read on his behalf, the Executive Secretary of the PURC, Dr Ishmael Ackah, said 70 per cent of issues raised by customers were on the quality of service provided by the utility providers after the commission’s nationwide engagement, adding that it was what necessitated the institution of the customer service clinics.

The Director of Public Affairs of the GWCL, Stanley Martey, said the activities of illegal miners continued to increase operational cost.

Be patriotic

The Central Region General Manager of the ECG, Emmanuel Ankomah, said the company was ready to build cordial relations with customers and urged customers to be truthful and patriotic in their dealings with the company.

The acting General Manager for Regulatory Management of the ECG, Michael Brefo, said the ECG was improving its infrastructure to enhance efficiency in its services.

The Vice-Chancellor of the Cape Coast Technical University, Rev. Prof. Joshua Owusu-Sekyere, said the clinic would remove misconceptions and misinformation and improve relationships.

He urged the utility providers to step up efficiency to survive anticipated competition in the coming years, saying that in the near future, monopoly was likely to be broken and competition would be keener.

Participants

The participants further urged the two major utility service providers to provide services commensurate with tariff increments.

The assembly member for Ankaful, Benedict Ackon, said communities in his area including Abeam, Simiw Prisons Mental, Tikwekrom and Leprosarium Camp, did not have frequent water supply.

The assembly member for Anomabo Taido, James Anim Kwofie, for his part, urged the ECG to respond promptly to complaints from the rural communities.