Some contractors who were engaged by the former managers of defunct Power Distribution Services (PDS) are calling on the government to facilitate payment for work they have executed since 2019.
A spokesperson for the group, Alhassan Abubakari, who Spoke to Citi Business News said all efforts including petitioning the presidency over their concerns has yielded no results.
“We petitioned the PDS lawyers, the Senior Minister, the President and we haven’t heard from them. The government should come and help us to get our money. We voted for this government and up till now we have not seen any improvement in our standard of living apart from suffering. So, if this will be the way to go then I think at this year’s election we will make up our mind as to who to vote for. We are pleading with the President, if he indeed is a listening president, we want him to come to our aid and help us get this money.”
The 23 contractors say they are owed in excess of 1.6 million Ghana cedis.
The government announced the termination of its power concession agreement with the PDS over allegations of alleged fraud in the deal.
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has since resumed operations as the country’s power distributor.
This situation has left the fate of these contractors hanging in a balance as they seek to get paid for services they rendered to the erstwhile entity.
This is not the first time these contractors have raised concerns about the nonpayment for contracts they executed over a year ago.
Earlier in July, they had indicated to Citi Business News that the situation has negatively affected their wellbeing.
A lady who was part of the group said, “My money which I used, it is the same money I use to take care of my children. Even though there is no school now, that is the money I’m using to feed us and all. But now, I can’t do anything. I’m even selling iced water because of the delay in payment of the money. I even went for a loan but it’s been about a year now so even if I get the money now, I wouldn’t even get anything out of it.”
Meanwhile, management of ECG says it is making efforts to address the concerns of these contractors.
The company has given similar assurances a few months back but nothing concrete has come out of it till date.
Citinewsroom
