An ECG official checking for illegal connection at East Legon in Accra
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) yesterday began a nationwide metre inspections and auditing exercise as it intensifies the fight against power theft, metre bypasses and other illegal activities resulting in the loss of revenue for the power distributor.
This followed the expiration of a six-week amnesty which ended on July 20, 2022, to its customers to report all issues with their metres for rectification, and the launch of a revenue protection visibility and metre auditing programme as parts of efforts to protect the revenue streams ECG.
The visibility exercise is aimed at checking the integrity of both domestic and commercial metres to ensure customers are paying the right amount of money for the power they consume.
The exercise kickstarted in the Legon District where officials of ECG disconnected power supply to the De Icon Event Centre in East Legon and issued it a notice for appearance for metre bypass and power theft.
The facility was illegally tapping power from the transformer erected adjacent to it without it passing through the domestic use metre installed in the premise which was converted for commercial purposes without notice to ECG.
The Manager in Charge of Revenue Protection and Technical Investigation, Ismael Tetteh Oku, who led the team disclosed that the metre bypass was costing ECG GH₵44,000 every month, indicating that such an act should not be allowed to continue.
“This is just this place. So, if three, four people are doing this, how then do we take care of what we purchase from GRIDCO and also to take care of our operations. This is how bad the situation is on the ground”, he lamented while calling for assistance from the public to clamp down on power theft.
Earlier, the Managing Director of ECG, Samuel Dubik Mahama, said power theft was the main challenge affecting the operations of the power distribution company, costing it as much as $100 million annually.
He said offenders would be given 48 hours within which to write to any of the regional or district of offices of ECG, a failure for which they will be prosecuted for the offence of stealing.
“ECG reserves the right to prosecute anyone but it is also about collecting our money and people doing the right thing to the amount of power that they consume. Anybody who self-reconnects without our knowledge, that will be very unacceptable and that person is also punishable by a charge of stealing and also illegal connection”, Mr. Mahama added.
The Regional General Manger of Accra East, Ing. Bismark Ottoo, He was hopeful that the launch of the programme will increase the revenue collection of the district within the shortest possible time, adding that “We are going to make sure that it succeeds so that the exercise is spread and deployed to all other operational areas of ECG and this we are going to ensure happens within the shortest possible time.
By Gibril Abdul Razak