The Accra West Region of the Electricity Company of Ghana says it will leave no stone unturned until all illegal power connections become a thing of the past.
In order to achieve this, the ECG Accra West Region had intensified its crack down on unauthorised power supply at customer premises and imposing hefty fines on perpetrators couple with prosecutions to serve as deterrent to others.
Consequently, the Acting Accra West Region Manager of the ECG, Mr Emmanuel Ankrah, announced that that special task teams had been set up and were on a daily basis moving into customer premises to audit the state of installed meters and other electrical connections in their facilities.
In its pilot phase from September to December last year, he indicated that the region recovered more than GH¢7.4 million from 374 customers arrested for engaging in various forms of illegalities, constituting a total of 3.3 gigawatts of power theft.
During an engagement with the media on Thursday at the Accra North Industrial Area headquarters of the region, Mr Ankrah advised customers to desist from conniving with self-styled ECG staff or electricians to interfere with meter installations and illegally connect customers to the grid.
“We have therefore, introduced an incentive package of six per cent of the amount recovered from illegal connection to anyone with information which leads to the arrest of perpetrators.”
“To all who have done illegal connections, we will identify you and recover the value of all the power you have used for free, penalty,” the Acting Accra West Regional Manager of the ECG concluded.
He mentioned Ablekuma, Achimota, Amasaman, Bortanior, Dansoman, Kaneshie, Korle -bu and Nsawam as the eight operational districts of the Accra West Region with a total customer population of approximately 710,484 with a staff strength of 578.
On his part, the Accra west Revenue Protection Manager, Dr Mark Owusu Ansah, said illegal connections poses serious risk to property though fire outbreaks and sometimes leading to electrocution, endangering entire neighbourhoods.
“We regard persons who engage in illegalities as thieves who steal power from us and deny us revenue. We are leaving no stone unturned to identify such criminals and boot them out,” Dr Owusu Ansah stated.
The illegalities identified during the pilot exercise, he said, were: meter bypass, meter tempering, direct and unauthorised service connection.
The eight districts were represented by the respective managers at the media engagement, including the General Manager, External Affairs of the ECG, Charles Nii Ayiku Ayiku.
Nii Ayiku Ayiku assured journalists that his office was opened 24 hours to respond to all forms of inquiries.
BY NORMAN COOPER
