Officers of the Ghana Police Service at Half Assini in the Western Region, have been accused of arresting and intimidating officials of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), who were sent to either collect debts or disconnect the service for non-payment of water bills.
The Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum, who revealed this, said some institutions including the Police Service have on several occasions harassed officials of the GWCL who are sent to disconnect their taps for owing bills.
“Institutions such as the Police when you go to collect your payments, sometimes you have difficulties. They don’t want you to disconnect them and they don’t want to pay the bills as well.
“There have been instances when our officers go to disconnect the police and they will actually arrest them. The only charge is that they did not pay their bills and our officers are disconnecting them” Mr. Agyekum complained.
This was revealed when the Deputy Minister and some officials of the Community Water and Sanitation Development Board appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday to respond to the status of implementation of audit recommendation.
Policemen attacks GWCL employee at Weija
A similar incident occurred at Upper Weija in Accra in 2015, where some police officers allegedly brutalized a worker of the GWCL for disconnecting an illegal water connection to their residence.
The officers were alleged to have illegally re-connected water supply to their rented quarters after an initial disconnection over non-payment of bills amounting to GHC 12,000.
Upon detection, the GWCL dispatched four officers to go and permanently disconnect the water supply and remove the meter.
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By: citifmonline.com/with files from Daily Heritage/Ghana