The Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) has chastised the Public Utility Regulation Commission (PURC) for failing to carry out its supervisory role over the country’s utility service providers.
It has been stated that the PURC has failed miserably in protecting the general interest of consumers, as enshrined in Act 538 of the 1992 Constitution.
The CPA has expressed concern about the utility companies’ poor service and the PURC’s continued push for tariff adjustments.
Chief Executive Officer Kofi Kapito, speaking to the media in Accra on Wednesday, March 8, expressed concern that the PURC’s work in price fixing has been biassed only in favour of service providers.
He underscored that Public Utilities Regulatory Commission Act, 1997 (Act 538) provides for the establishment of a Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to regulate and oversee the provision of utility services by public utilities to consumers and to provide for related matters.
- Utility providers won’t receive anything close to their proposed tariffs – PURC
- We will not allow consumers to bear demands of utility providers – PURC
He emphasized that subject to the provisions of the Act, the Commission is expected not to be subjected to the direction or control of any person or authority in the performance of its functions.
Mr. Kofi Kapito wants the PURC to use the same strength in announcing tariff increases in making sure that the service providers live up to expectations.
He has threatened to seek court injunction to bar PURC from making future tariff adjustments if consumers continue to suffer poor services from the utility companies.
“After the first quarter, if consumers are still facing the numerous problems being confronted in accessing these services there is no way the Consumer Protection Agency will support any tariff adjustment in future.”
The CPA will not hesitate to go to court and seek an injunction to stop the implementation of any upward price adjustment as announced every quarter, he gambled.
Kofi Kapito has thus challenged the PURC who are the mandated regulators of the utility companies to ensure they provide better services to the consumers.
