By Naa Shormei Odonkor, GNA
Kumasi, May 27, GNA – Dr John Abdulai Jinapor, the Minister of Energy and Green Transmission, has cautioned engineers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Limited to avoid politicising their job.
He noted that all engineers working under the ECG and the Energy Sector owed their allegiance to the country and not any political party.
Dr Jinapor said this in a meeting with four regional managers, 21 district managers and engineers of ECG operating in the Ashanti Region.
He noted that the company’s inability to stabilise and deliver quality and safe power to citizens, due to what he described as deliberate negligence by some engineers, had dragged the energy sector into disrepute.
“Your job is that of an engineer and not a politician. You cannot be a politician. That’s why I say if you want to be a politician, you exit,” the Minister reminded them.
He stressed that his duty was to ensure discipline, dedication and commitment of all staff working in the Energy Sector to provide quality, safe and stable power to every citizen.
According to Dr Jinapor, aside from the widespread criticism directed at the government during periods of frequent power outages, the ECG also suffered revenue losses from power that was paid for but remained unused.
Aside from the engineers, Dr Jinapor said all ECG managers, particularly the district managers, needed to up their games to ensure that the right thing was done in the power distribution.
“You are the face of the ECG. If the managers don’t work well, it tarnishes the image of the company,” he said.
Dr Jinapor disclosed that a full command and control centre was being set up under the auspices of the Energy Ministry and the Energy Commission.
This, he explained, was a strategic mechanism to employ the use of modern technology to track service delivery to citizens.
Additionally, all managers will be given new phones with a dedicated contact number linked to the systems being set up.
Dr Jinapor stressed that the phones were to ensure that managers received reports on time and responded to the reports on time.
“The main issue is the time of response. The centre is not just for updates, it’s also to track transformers as well,” he said.
The Minister said a short code and a number linked to the system will be made available to citizens to report power situations to the authorities.
Furthermore, he indicated that a number of electronic motorcycles and pickup trucks will be distributed to ECG districts to aid their movements.
According to him, the Ministry of Energy was deliberately equipping the ECG with the necessary tools to deliver better services to the citizens.
Dr. Jinapor said the managers and engineers would be held accountable to every failure to provide quality, safe and stable power supply in the region and the country.
He observed that various projects were being carried out by the energy sector players to increase the energy generation capacity in the region as the population grew.
“Very soon we’re going to have over 1000 MW situated here in Kumasi, a strategic location,” he said.
Dr Jinapor, therefore, implored the workers of the ECG to give the sector their best and cautioned them not to try to sabotage the system.
GNA
Edited by Yussif Ibrahim/Benjamin Mensah
Reporter: Naa Shormei OdonkorÂ
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