The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has announced the rollout of phase 2 of the Database Management System (DBMS) following the successful implementation of phase 1 in mid-2021.
On the back of its partners, Korean Africa Cooperation and African Development Bank Group (AfDB), the Commission will benefit from a $590,000 facility to implement phase 2 of the DBMS.
The Executive Secretary of PURC, Dr. Ishmael Ackah, told the press on Tuesday, December 12, 2023, that DBMS 2 has come at the opportune time and will help make managing customers easier.
He said that the system is to be used internally to promote efficiency, cut down on printing costs, and help effectively manage its complaints system.
In the second phase of the project, the PURC system will be connected to the utility systems so that when a client visits any utility facility to file a complaint, PURC will receive notification about the time and type of complaint the customer filed with the company.
“The second phase is linking the PURC system to that of the utilities, so for instance, if a customer goes to a utility and complains, what happens is that we will get an alert that the customer went there at this time, and it also helps us to know when the utility responded to the customer. In this way, we will get live and credible data, not data based on what the company will write and send us,” Dr. Ackah said.
Dr. Ackah observed that the benefit of using this data gathering phase is so enormous that it cannot be overlooked, alluding to prompt regulatory decisions and also providing credible data gathering.
According to him, DBMS 2 will be used for water and electricity complaint management; however, in terms of gathering data, PURC wants to link it to ECG, NEDCO, Enclave Power, and Ghana Water.
Dr. Ackah noted that the functions this data gathering system is going to provide are threefold: firstly, it is going to address the timely release of data to PURC, secondly, the credibility of the data, and lastly, it will provide a system for verification.
He said this is not to say that PURC will stop receiving paper reports from the utility facilities but that this will grant them the opportunity for verification so that PURC can compare the paper report with that which they have in the system, whether or not it corresponds.
This, he believes, will help cut down on printing costs and save money and the planet as well.
