pThe Western Regional Directorate of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) recovered a total amount of GH₵2, 518, 766 from businesses and persons who were caught for committing various infractions of power consumption in 2019.
The amount was realised after culprits were surcharged together with penalties.
In an interview with the Ghanaian Times, the Western Regional General Manager of ECG, Abraham Anokye Abebreseh, cited meter by-pass, direct connection, unauthorised connection and meter tampering as some of the offences by those found culpable.
He explained that with direct connection, culprits hired the services of electricians to connect cables direct to the service poles and drew electricity direct to their facilities or premises, whilst those who tampered with meters found ways to make the gadget read slowly.
With the meter by-passing, Mr Abebreseh said that, culprits requested for the meters, but, ensured some of their appliances were connected to the meter source for accurate reading of power used.
“All these come as a loss to the company. But our revenue protection officers go around and with the help of informants we are able to detect the illegalities and surcharge offenders,” he added.
The ECG Regional Manager expressed his appreciation to the general public and well-meaning Ghanaians who volunteered information to expose the unscrupulous organisations and persons.
“We shall continue to fulfill our obligation of six per cent monetary reward to members of the community who assist in exposing such nefarious activities by consumers. We also assure informants of absolute confidentiality, with regards to their identity, ” Mr Abebreseh assured.
The Revenue Protection Manager for the region, Mr John Quayson-Dadzie, revealed that a total of 2,562,606 kilowatt hours (KWh) was recovered in the process, and cautioned the public against power theft, saying that “you cannot use power for free, because you will end up paying a hefty fine when you are caught”.
The Managing Director of the ECG, Mr Kwame Agyeman-Budu, declared war against illegal power consumption recently as part of his plan to turn around the current state of the company into a world class power distributor.
FROM CLEMENT ADZEI BOYE, TAKORADI
