Maxwell Kotoka, the corporate communications manager for the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo), has justified the company’s decision to stop power to Damongo’s St. Anne’s Hospital due to a GH4.8 million debt.Mr. Kotoka revealed during an interview on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News that the Hospital ignored the notification given to facilities under NEDCo’s control and showed no commitment when a disconnection exercise was announced. He claimed that the hospital’s administration could have reached an agreement with the power company when they realized they couldn’t pay the debt on time, but they didn’t.
“Needing the power which is so critical to their operation, where they have challenges, they should have engaged us, but they didn’t do that. And I heard them say that they owe GH¢4 million, they actually owe us GH¢4.8 million, and before we embarked on the disconnection, we made a public announcement that we were coming and said if you have any difficulty, you should take advantage of the notice before we get there,” Mr. Kotoka explained to Umaru Sanda Amadu.
As a result of the power outage on Monday, May 22, two newborns died at the hospital and three others were critically injured.
Mr. Kotoka stated that NEDCo is willing to engage in discussions in order to find a long-term solution that will allow power to be restored to the hospital.
“The hospital will testify that when we even came to disconnect, the disconnection wasn’t our best option, we wanted to engage on what we can do or what will be done about the continuous debt, but that didn’t yield results and so if there is a discussion on how to address this critical issue, why not?”
