ECG and police arrest 40 companies for power theft in 2018 at Tema
31st January 2019
Power theft has been on the rise over the years in Ghana and in 2018, about forty forty companies are reported to have stolen power from the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
According to the General Manager of ECG in the Tema Metropolis,Mr Joseph Forson, with the help of the police, the Power Supply Company have been able to bring to book the power thefts.
He made the statement while speaking to the media earlier today organized by the ECG to express gratitude to the media for contributing immersely towards the work of the Company in the region.
The Company will hand over operation to Power Distribution Service (PDS), a private power supply company to to manage the service for 20 years.
Mr Forson said some of the businesses had either paid in full or in part while. others were yet to settle their surcharges adding that such customers would be pursued through the law courts for the monies to be retrieved.
He indicated that apart from the identification of these businesses, his outfit made some modest achievements with the collective effort of stakeholders through deepened engagements with customers and the media.
He added that there was improvement in its service delivery reliability while staff were resourced and given the needed capacity building to add value to their customer service activities.
Meanwhile, the ECG Tema Region was able to retrieve 2,247 gigawatts units of power translated into GHs 2. 2 million from various power thefts.
Mrs Zita Kyei-Gyamfi, Tema Regional ECG Revenue Protection Manager, announcing this said GHs 1.8 million forming 80 per cent of the total figure had so far been paid by the erring customers.
Mrs Kyei-Gyamfi added that 19 of the customers who had refused to pay after being billed with the units they stole, had been referred to court by the legal department of the Company.
She indicated that it was her department's responsibility to audit all fixed metres to identify any illegalities and other forms of power theft hence their resolve to pursue such recalcitrant persons.
She revealed that the Afienya district topped in the thievery as it had a lot of new settlements whose occupants illegally connected power to their homes.