MINISTRIES, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the Tamale metropolis and the operational areas of the Volta River Authority (VRA) are honouring their outstanding bills they owe to the VRA.
The Northern Area Manager of the VRA-Northern Electrification Department (NED), Mr Bukari Danladi, told the Daily Graphic that although he could not readily disclose the amount of money paid by the MDAs, they had paid “a substantial amount of money to the company”.
He said, however, that 77 corn mills which were allocated power and prepaid meters could no longer be traced and this had made the company to incur some debts.
Also, the manager intimated that VRA had put in place a mechanism to document the serial numbers of all corn mills that had been allocated prepaid meters to forestall such negative practices.
“Our problem is with the corn millers, small industrial set-ups and residential customers, but as for the MDAs, we do not have a problem with them at all,” he further said.
Mr Danladi said so far, three persons had been put in jail in connection with the theft of copper wires, and that about 80 per cent of the company’s copper wires had also been stolen.
He said in August last year, the company had spent a total of GH¢38,200 to replace stolen wires in the metropolis and its environs.
The manager said there were about 4,000 “inactive” customers, who had not paid their bills for more than three months.
He stressed that most of the power outages in the metropolis and other operational areas of the VRA were as a result of a frequent tampering of its installations.
“Everyday, we process not less than 10 cases of illegal connections for court. So far, two persons have been jailed for tampering with prepaid meters. However, the process of prosecution is slow,” Mr Danladi lamented.
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