If you thought that only Third World countries have governments that grapple with unpaid bills, you are wrong; even developed countries at times, face this challenge.
On Tuesday, one of the stadiums which hosted the World Cup 2018 in Russia – the Samara arena, had its power cut off over outstanding arrears, the Mirror reports.
In spite of a stern warning by President Vladimir Putin, electricity at the arena was disconnected over unpaid bills amounting to 9,216,000 roubles ($137,600).
The Samara stadium which has a capacity of 42,000 people is reportedly said to have outstanding power bills spanning for a year which has been blamed on PSO Kazan, the company, the built the stadium.
“We waited for a long time, we delayed the power cut," Olga Perkova, a spokeswoman for Samaraenergo said as quoted by the Mirror.
“Because PSO Kazan did not resolve the issue of paying its debt, a decision was made to cut electricity."With the power cut, the Russian Premier League was likely to be affected and an internal meeting was convened and it was decided that the Samaraenergo turn the power back.
In clear contrast to Kenya, top government agencies have found themselves in the dark after the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) disconnected their power over unpaid bills.
On Tuesday, KPLC disconnected power for Huduma Centre located at the heart of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi over unpaid bills.
Services offered here – a majority of them digitized, could not be offered as computers could not run.