UTILITY SERVICE PROVIDERS UNDER FIRE (PAGE 29)

Utility service providers in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis have been criticised for their poor service delivery.
Residents in the twin-city blame the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) for the frequent power outages, and the Ghana Water Company (GWCL) for the irregular water supply to the metropolis.
There have been intermittent power outages in the metropolis, which is negatively affecting businesses and industries.
Last week for example, there was a power outage in the greater part of Takoradi for four consecutive days, which affected financial institutions, industries and companies, including the offices of the Graphic Communications Group within the central business district stretching from the Takoradi Central Market to the Takoradi Harbour area.
This was attributed to defects on an underground cable which took the ECG four days to rectify.
Also, water shortage in the metropolis is regular.
It is against this backdrop that the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has organised a day’s consumer services planning workshop for the utility service providers with the view to developing an effective planning and benchmarking process which will establish well defined goals, objectives, lines of responsibilities.
The process will also highlight PURC’s consumer service standards in order to evolve a sustainable mechanism to improve upon customer service delivery.
The commission has also moved a step forward by promoting consumer collaboration in the process by establishing a consumer services committee in Sekondi. It is made up of ordinary citizens in the community, who will support the commission in the implementation of its policies and programmes.
The participants were taken through topics such as competitive advantage, attitudes for success, complaints management, benchmarking, customer service planning, building the team and monitoring.
The PURC was established by the PURC Act 1997, (Act 538) to regulate and oversee the provision of utility services in the country.
Opening of the workshop, the Executive Secretary of the PURC,Mr Stephen Adu, said the consumer service was at the heart of the business of utility service delivery and that the commission was interested and committed to ensuring consumer satisfaction.
“The commission, therefore, reiterates its commitment to consumers by constantly reviewing its activities with the view to enhancing quality utility service delivery that fulfils consumer satisfaction”, he said.
Mr Adu said the PURC was refocusing its priorities and strategies through a series of programmes and activities to educate, sensitise and create awareness among consumers on their rights and responsibilities.
Such programmes and activities, he explained, included instituting educational programmes for schools dubbed “catch them young”, establishing consumer service committees as “watchdogs” in the districts, conducting consumer satisfaction surveys and workshops on “quality customer service delivery”.
“The onerous duty to deliver quality customer services is a shared responsibility for both the utility provider and the regulator”, he emphasised adding that the need for cooperation, collaboration and partnership in that endeavour could not be overemphasised”.
Such collaboration with the utilities, he said, had so far been beneficial culminating in the improvement in complaints management, re-equipping of cousumer service centres and establishment of toll free call centres that inured to the benefit of consumers, among others.
The consumer service planning workshop was intended to strategise together as partners on how to plan to continuously to put smiles on the faces of consumers in a sustainable manner.
The Director of Consumer Services of the PURC, Mrs Mami Dufie Ofori, further explained that the workshop was a continuation of the commission’s efforts to put consumer services at the forefront of utility service delivery.
Also, she said, it was to reinforce the commission’s commitment in ensuring the provision of quality service through collaboration with key stakeholders specifically, the service providers.