By Cecil MENSAH
The Achimota district office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has blacklisted ten companies and two individuals in the Accra metropolis for issuing dud cheques for the payment of power supplied them.
The amount of money that the blacklisted companies and individuals still owe the power distributor is, however, not readily known.
But Business Day can report that by November 2016, the said customers owed the ECG as a result of issuing the dud cheques.
Currently, a list containing the names and metre numbers of these offending customers has been pasted at ECG vending points, alerting the vendors about the customers’ penchant for issuing dud cheques.
The blacklisting means that the said companies and individuals will not have their cheques admitted for payment at any ECG point of sale in the Achimota district.
Popular on the list is Global Haulage, a cargo transport operator, which has three metres – with numbers 35187441, 33077553 and 34081531 – listed against its name.
Similarly, Achimota Kenkey Factory appears on the blacklist, having metre numbers 34145946, 35618982 and 3300997 against its name.
Also on the list are Principals College (metre number 36194664) College Complex Limited (metre number 34111962), Shop of the Town (metre number 36600689) and Tadomah Hotel (metre number 23678599).
The two individuals who have been name on the list are Mr Edmund Quartey with metre number 33142400 and George Kwasi Padi with metre number 32044120.
Dishonoured cheques
In a circular issued to all distributors as well as vendors and signed by Michael Nyarko with reference number Ach/f.431/2016, ECG directed vendors to desist from receiving cheques from “these institutions and individuals.”
There has also been the issuance of an internal memo (intercepted by Business Day) in which the ECG indicated that “the above listed customers have been blacklisted from making payments for any transaction (payment of bills, pre-payment credit etc) with cheques.”
The memo said this is because “their cheques have been dishonoured more than once.”
They are therefore required to make payment with either cash or bank draft, the memo clarified.
Business Day learned from a former manager of the ECG Achimota district that when a customer’s cheque bounces three times within a certain specified period the customer is invited and cautioned by the officers in charge.
He further explained that when it is subsequently realize that the customer is somebody who is fond of using dud cheques, the customer is blacklisted and forced to make payments by cash or banker’s draft.
He also told Business Day that because of the dud cheque business, ECG does not deal with the vendors directly but they are given a quota system to buy in large quantities and make payments at the bank to retail.
Meanwhile, Mr Eric Asante, Accra West Regional Communications manager of ECG, has told Business Day that the power distributor will not cease to do business with the companies and individuals involved but that cheques from the companies will not be admitted.
He said even though their actions contravene the Bank of Ghana directives on the issuance of cheques for payments, the culprits were cautioned by the managers of ECG.
According to him, the recalcitrant companies will be compelled to offer cash or banker’s draft for the payment of all transactions with the power distributor.
Writer’s Email: cecilm@businessdayghana.com
