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This is how much the US embassy,MTN and other multinationals owe ECG

US Embassy and other multinationals have over the period refused to pay their electricity bills which runs into millions of cedis

U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, Robert P. Jackson

Reports say several companies continue to default payments of utility bills despite several warnings.

These institutions are highly indebted to the state institutions in millions of Ghana cedis.

Minister of Energy, Mr Boakye Agyarko, in a stunning revelation, disclosed how the US Embassy in Ghana and MTN Ghana, owe the ECG several million Cedis of power supplied.

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While the exact outstanding amount owed ECG by the American Embassy with over 160 facilities across the country was not readily available,

MTN on its part says it has an outstanding GHC35million debt to pay the state power distributer.

Sources at ECG told The aL-hAJJ, many companies owned by Lebanese, Chinese, Indians and other expatriates across the country owe the ECG huge sums of monies.

According to the source, foreign companies within Accra and Tema alone owe the ECG as much as GHC300m. “They (foreign companies) owe us (ECG) a lot of money but unfortunately we are unable to chase them for it,” the source stated.

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Though ECG has been active in disconnecting Ghanaians businesses and households that owe relatively meager sums, the Minister revealed that the state owned power Distributor has failed and or, refused to recover huge debts owed by many multinationals in the country.

Speaking to a group of journalists and officials of Millennium Development Authority at the sidelines of a 7-member ECG PSP stakeholders’ committee in Accra, Mr Agyrako said he was astounded when ECG has GHC130 million a week in receivables, but only manages to collects GHC 50 million.

“What happens to the balance? You look at their inventory and they have 20 years’ supply of spares. You have locked up that money in spares that would be obsolete,” he stated in an utterly jaw dropping mood shocking.

Singling out American Embassy and MTN Ghana, the Minister said he was shocked when officials of the two institutions said they have not been billed for several years despite their consistent effort to get ECG to bill them.

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He said “I had a discussion with the Managing Director. American Embassy has 160 facilities in Ghana. They have not been billed for two years. So they went to ECG and said ‘look, we owe you money. Bring us a bill. Bring us pre-paid meters. We will use it for one year, and whenever we use, we will multiply it by 3 and give it to you.’ Up to now, the ECG hasn’t been able to do that.”

On MTN, Mr Agyarko noted “MTN called me and said ‘we owe ECG GH¢35 million. We are trying to pay. We are waiting for wire instructions. And we’ve been waiting for one month. So I went to ECG and I asked them. What’s going on? And they said ‘Oh the person who is supposed to issue the instructions is gone on leave’….And they have as many as 6500 staff and still growing.”

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