The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has released a team nationwide to conduct verification of projects proposed by utility providers for approval in the 2016 major tariff review.
The move is to inform the commission whether the utilities committed the resources to the specified projects before the announcement of the 2022-2027 Multi-Year Major Tariff Review expected on July 15.
The Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) and Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) have asked for a 113 and 334 percent tariff increment respectively.
The Northern Regional Manager of PURC, Mr. Edward Boduah, who disclosed the verification exercise to THE CUSTODIAN in an interview, said the commission would not do any armchair tariff process.
“We want to go back and verify the projects of the last tariff that we gave to see whether they have indeed committed the resources that we gave them to the projects. We want to see those that have been completed and those that are still work in progress” he noted.
He added, “The Commission has actually released a team and the team is going round all over the country – Ghana Water you said you wanted to buy these pumps in the last tariff review and so the PURC is verifying them based on the project documents they submitted. NEDCo, you said you wanted to buy Hexing software to help in billing process and all that, the PURC wants to see what is happening.”
Mr. Boduah intimated this would ensure that the utilities are more responsive and for purposes of accountability, the PURC can confidently give true account to Ghanaians that, when we gave the last tariff, NEDCo was able to buy this number of meters.
