Parliament has refuted allegations of owing the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) GH¢23 million in unpaid electricity bills, which allegedly led to a power outage during Thursday's proceedings.
Ebenezer Ahumah Djietror, the Deputy Clerk of the Corporate and Financial Management Services Division in Parliament, stated that all necessary payments to the power distributor have been made.
The power outage occurred as legislators were debating President Akufo-Addo’s recent State of the Nation Address (SONA).
Outgoing Deputy Minister for Finance, Abena Osei-Asare, was addressing the house when the power went off, reportedly as part of ECG's "Operation Zero Balance" initiative.
However, Mr. Ahumah Djietror expressed frustration, clarifying that Parliament has been fulfilling its payments, although the ECG's system occasionally fails to register them.
He said, “As far as we are concerned, we’ve made payment, all the payment we have made, some have not reflected in their system, that’s what I’m saying, some do not reflect in their system.
"We have a breakdown, so we showed it to the Deputy Managing Director, we are just coming from his office."
"I said they should reconcile the account. We are going to get the bank to extract all the payments we’ve made in terms of the dates.
"I’m not sure how it’s captured, so there’s a gap in terms of the reconciliation as to what is the outstanding bill.”
Credit: myjoyonline