By Muyid Deen Suleman
Kumasi, April 25 GNA – Mr Simon Osei Mensah, the Ashanti Regional Minister, has said the inaccurate media statements and false accusations being peddled against him by some institutions are all ploys to tarnish his image.
The Regional Minister who was addressing a press conference in Kumasi to narrate his side of the story regarding some accusations being leveled against him, by the leadership of the Public Utilities Workers Union (PUWU) and the Senior Staff Association of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), said the issues had been e concocted.
He said the actions by the leadership of these groups to concoct stories in the media without bothering to hear his side on the issues was pure hatred and an attempt to bring his reputation into disrepute.
Mr Osei Mensah said the purpose of the press conference was to bring the truth out of concealment and expose those who were peddling falsehood against him.
He said he had discussed with the managers of ECG in the Ashanti Region that, whenever they had challenges with hospitals, health facilities or educational institutions on defaults in payment of bills and there was the need for disconnection, they should inform him to find an amicable solution to the issue.
He said the consideration was that, with the disconnection of power in such institutions, the negative impacts or sufferings were often on the patients and students and not the heads of the institutions.
The Regional Minister explained that, in August 2023, the ECG wanted to disconnect the electricity supply of the Kumasi Technical University (KsTU) and the issue was brought before him.
He said the management of both ECG and KsTU were invited for a meeting to resolve the issue, but during the discussions the parties could not agree on the total outstanding indebtedness of the school and an alleged component of legacy debt.
The Regional Minister said he then advised both parties to sit down to discuss and determine the total indebtedness and establish the component of legacy debt and prepare a payment plan agreement.
He further advised that KsTU obtained a letter from the Ministry of Finance on government commitment to pay the legacy debt.
Subsequent negotiations resulted in the signing of a payment plan agreement between ECG and KsTU on 12th September 2024, he stated.
The Minister pointed out that the payment plan agreement was signed for and on behalf of ECG by Ing. Mark Asomani-Wiafe and witnessed by Mr Emmanuel Dadzie, and that of KsTU was signed by Prof. Gabriel Dwomoh, the Vice Chancellor, witnessed by Mr James O. Brobbey the Director of Finance.
He said on the 11th of April 2024, he received a call from the Council Chairman of KsTU that, ECG had disconnected the school’s main campus on the previous day, even though they were honouring the payment plan.
The Minister said, upon hearing this development, he called Ing. Mark Asomani-Wiafe to find out why they had disconnected the power supply to KsTU, and requested that it should be restored.
He said Mr Asomani-Wiafe responded that, a national taskforce from Accra undertook the disconnection exercise and he had no control over it.
The Minister said he made a formal complaint to the police to invite him to write a statement.
The Regional Minister, the invitation was necessary because in September 2023, ECG disconnected the power at the Adako Jachie campus of KsTU even though they had credit on their prepaid metre.
When contacted at the time, the Ejisu office of ECG said that the disconnection exercise was undertaken by a national taskforce from Accra, he added.
Mr Osei Mensah pointed out that such unfortunate wrong disconnections were becoming security risks, hence the need to take security measures to solve the problem.
He said although Ing. Asomani-Wiafe had earlier indicated he had no prior knowledge of the disconnection, and that it was clear from the PUWU press release of 16th April 2024 that, Ing. Mark Asomani-Wiafe reported the matter to the taskforce in Accra and thus, was aware of the operations by the taskforce.
The Minister explained that the information received from KsTU indicated that they had been paying their bills and the last one was paid in March 2024.
He said he requested for an information on planned and unplanned maintenance exercise to enable him respond appropriately to issues any time there was the need to explain to the public and requested for regional distribution of GRIDCO’s generation shortfalls.
The EGC started providing the information but stopped just after a week, he said.
The Regional Minister denied the allegations that he was not paying his private residence electricity bills and said the last payment he made was GHs 1,600.00 on April 02, 2024.
“The ECG disingenuously sent a fraudulent bill of GHs 2,756.48 to the house in my hometown on 22nd April 2024. Surprisingly, the actual metre reading as at yesterday, 24th April 2024 was 23,498 units.
However the metre reading on the bill, which is expected to have been read earlier, is 25,471 units given a difference of 1,973 units,” he revealed.
He said he was of the strongest conviction that the ECG intentionally presented a fraudulent bill just to tarnish his hard-won reputation.
Mr Osei-Mensah advised the media to always cross-check issues brought before them and analyse them carefully before going out to publish them.
He said a lot of people were having issues with the ECG because of wrong and fraudulent bills issued to them by the company to pay.
GNA