The Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Policies and Research (IEPRe), Kwadwo Poku, is calling for transparency in the IT department of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

According to Mr. Opoku, the department’s refusal to provide the company board with accounts of its operations is a contributing factor to the current challenges with the ECG’s prepaid credit operating system.

His remarks come after some ECG prepaid customers were left in the dark due to a technical issue that prevented them from purchasing credits for their metres.

Customers in Accra, Volta Region, Takoradi, Tema, Cape Coast, Kasoa, Winneba, Swedru, Koforidua, Nkawkaw, and Tafo were affected.

Information privy to him indicates that “there is one person at ECG who controls all the vendors” and that, according to him, is what the ECG’s managing director, Samuel Dubik Masubir Mahama, has been trying to impose some changes within the organization, particularly with regard to how the credit system is managed, but has encountered some resistance from the IT unit that is in charge of the system.

In an interview with Joy News, Kwadwo Poku mentioned that “Now what happens is that the Managing Director of ECG and his managers are asking the IT department to give them some information and that information is not forthcoming”.

Refuting claims of ECG suffering a system hack, Kwadwo Poku explained that Hubtel’s involvement in resolving the prepaid credit system challenge is not to check for hacks but to “help ECG develop a transparent platform” as that is exactly what the company needs to juxtapose into its financials.

While he stopped short of accusing the IT department of sabotage, he noted that the ongoing impasse may have a direct link to the system shutdown that ECG had experienced over the past six days.

Source: The Independent Ghana