Ghanaians have ranked the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), as the worst public service delivery agency in 2014, the latest Afrobarometer survey has revealed.
The survey revealed that most Ghanaians are dissatisfied with government’s delivery of public services such as electricity, healthcare, education, water and sanitation, and road maintenance.
The ECG has however defended itself saying it only distributes the power it receives from the Volta River Authority (VRA).
The survey showed that 75% of Ghanaians ranked the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), the worst public service delivery agency as Ghana has been experiencing massive energy problems due to energy generation and distribution problems.
The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and the Private Enterprise Federation (PEF) have lamented over how many companies have collapsed during the period of erratic power supply.
The AGI also named the power crisis as one of the key indicators stifling business growth in its Afrobarometer report.
Government has been battling to solve the energy crisis, insisting that new thermal plants and investment will soon make the current load shedding exercise, a thing of the past.
Most Ghanaians assessed government as having performed “very badly” or “fairly badly” in providing reliable electricity (75%), maintaining roads and bridges (68%), providing water and sanitation services (66%), addressing educational needs (63%), and improving basic health services (61%).
Compared to previous Afrobarometer surveys, the public’s negative evaluations of government’s performance in delivering these services has increased significantly, ranging from 28 percentage points (water and sanitation) to 59 percentage points (reliable electricity).
Ghanaians have asked government to focus on providing quality education and quality health care delivery in order to improve the well-being of the citizenry, the latest Afrobarometer survey has revealed.
According to the survey which was conducted between May 24 and June 10, 2014, “if government decides to increase its spending, Ghanaians would want it to consider education(47%) and health (29%) as the two top priority areas for additional investment.”
In contrast, the survey showed that fewer than half of Ghanaians are willing to pay additional increases in tax and user fees for such investment.
Indeed, 45% of Ghanaians are opposed to increases in taxes or user fees in exchange for increased government health expenditures.
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(Selorm) | 
(Nana Kwesi)