Dumsor Hits Parliament Over Ghc 23m Unpaid Light Bills

Ghana’s Parliament was plunged into darkness on Thursday after being disconnected by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) due to unpaid bills totalling GH₵23 million.

The Chamber Block temporarily lost power during the debate on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s State of the Nation address.

Members of Parliament resorted to using their phones to illuminate their surroundings while the minority caucus shouted “dumsor, dumsor” to express their frustration.

Shortly afterwards, power was restored to the chamber via a standby generator, while those within Job 600, which houses MPs’ offices and some office staff, remained in total darkness.

Several individuals, including journalists, were trapped in elevators, prompting engineers and officials from the Ghana Fire Service stationed in parliament to rescue them.

Earlier, the minority caucus in parliament had called on the government to publish a timetable for the ongoing load shedding (dumsor) to enable people to plan their lives accordingly.

The minority spokesperson on energy, John Abu Jinapor, asserted that the continuous denial by government officials of the existence of load shedding was untenable.

“We are reliably informed that dumsor will continue today at noon, and it’s only fair that Ghanaians are made aware,” Jinapor told journalists in parliament on Thursday.

He cited financial constraints preventing the government from purchasing enough fuel to power some of the thermal plants, resulting in generation challenges.

Jinapor highlighted that the entire city experienced a blackout yesterday without any official acknowledgement of the issue.

“The best this government, led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his vice, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, can do is to publish the schedule of the ongoing dumsor so people can plan their lives,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Clerk in-chairge of Corporate and Financial Management Services Division in Parliament, Ebenezer Ahumah Djietror has debunked the claim that Parliament owes the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) electricity bills amounting to GH¢23 million.

According to him, the house has been making payments but the ECG’s system fails to record it sometimes.

He explains that his outfit has all the records of the payments as evidence.

He disclosed that out of the GH¢23 million debt claimed by the ECG, the house made a payment of GH¢13 million on Tuesday, February 27, 2024, and currently has an outstanding debt of about GH¢12 million.

 “As far as we are concerned, we’ve made payment, all the payment we have made, some have not reflected in their system, that’s what I’m saying, some do not reflect in their system. We have a breakdown, so we showed it to the Deputy Managing Director, we are just coming from his office. I said they should reconcile the account. We are going to get the bank to extract all the payments we’ve made in terms of the dates. I’m not sure how it’s captured, so there’s a gap in terms of the reconciliation as to what is the outstanding bill.”Mr Djietror said.