Managing Director (MD) of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Samuel Dubik Mahama, has disclosed that power bills of former presidents are supposed to be paid by government.
He adds that the company only reads the meters of the former presidents and submits the bills periodically to the office of the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, for payment.
According to him, of the two former presidents in Ghana today, the bills of former president John Agyekum Kufuor is being fully catered for by the state unlike that of John Dramani Mahama.
“We collate all former presidents’ bills and we send them to the Chief of Staff for payment. Let me break it down, former President Kufour’s bills are with us, we gave them to the Chief of Staff and she has worked on them,” he disclosed in an interview with Accra-based Peace FM on April 18, 2023.
He explained how come the bills of Mahama were not at the moment being absorbed by the state.
“We also had former President John Mahama’s own…we tried to get in touch with him, and when we got the bills, for him, he has already been paying his own bills…Yes, he pays his own bills,” he added.
Dubik Mahama revealed that during a meeting with the Chief of Staff, she expressed her disappointment with the ECG’s failure to properly carry out its responsibilities with respect to Mahama’s bills.
“…so, we had a meeting with the Chief of Staff and she told us her piece of mind and she told us exactly what we have to do because a lot of people would like to drop the problem at the political doorstep which is wrong,” he said.
He maintained that ECG will open discussions with the former President to ensure that his bills are settled by the state, in accordance with the country’s constitution.
“So, from now onwards we are going to have discussions with him (John Mahama) so that moving forward it would be absorbed.
“I won’t put the blame at his doorsteps or make it political, it is my office, we were supposed to read his meter and take action by informing him that we will handle it, so, we now have put those structures in place after a very comprehensive conversation with the Chief of Staff.
Mahama in an interview with TV3 in 2022 said that all he receives from the government is his monthly pension and that all other bills the state must cater for have not been attended to since he left office in 2017.
Mahama said he is footing a myriad of bills, including light, fuel, office rent, and travel expenses.
Source: ghanaweb.com
