Samuel Dubik Mahama
THE MANAGING Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana, Samuel Dubik Mahama, has warned defaulting power consumers to pay their outstanding bills because his outfit has begun a meter auditing exercise to clamp down illegal power consumers.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra recently, he said the exercise, which will be carried out across the country, will enable them ascertain the amount of power consumed by the public compared with the power generated by the company.
That, he noted, would improve revenue generation and protection which have become a challenge for the company over the years.
He said, “What I want the good people of Ghana to know is that under my tenure, I am metering all the transformers so we are now going to start proper auditing of our meters. Energy audit and accounting, we need to know the amount of energy we have out in a certain area and how much revenue we are getting from that area, it must correspond. If my distribution transformer is reading a certain amount and if after adding up it does not correspond, we will visit each and every home to ascertain who is stealing the power from ECG.”
He continued, “Our main aim is to come after those who are taking power from us and are not paying. Truth is the meter audit that are to start next week is going to be very vigorous. There is going to be name and shame because we want every Ghanaian to take the payment of electricity as a topmost priority, you cannot consume the power and not pay, VRA is not the property of Ghana, so whatever power is sold to me after distribution, I have to pay them but I find myself losing over 30 per cent of this power and it is not sustainable.”
“I want to say this categorically, the meter does not belong to you, the meter has an inscription on it saying Electricity Company of Ghana. We have people going about in this country saying ‘I bought a meter’; you never bought a meter you paid for a service connection,” he added.
Mr. Dubik said persons found to have engaged in any act inconsistent with the law will be arrested and prosecuted by a utility court that has started working from this week.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah