Personnel of the Afienya District of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Limited, on Tuesday, May 30, 2023 discovered that one customer had connected electricity to thirty-three structures within the same vicinity at Gbetsile, a suburb of the Greater Accra Region.
The discovery was made as part of the ECG’s phase two of its national revenue mobilisation drive, which started on Monday, May 29, 2023 and is expected to end on Friday, June 2, 2023.
Briefing the media, the District Manager for ECG Afienya District, Ing Daniel Mensah-Asare indicated that as part of the exercise, “we also check on the state of the meters to ensure that they are in good condition and working as they are expected to, and it was during one of such meter checks that the group discovered that the meter, which had been fixed to one of the structures, had wires connecting to surrounding structures.
“Further checks revealed that there had been an illegal connection in the form of a meter bypass, and so the customer was not paying the right amount for the power consumed.”
Unfortunately, the owner of the structure fled upon seeing the ECG personnel, however, because the meter was located outside his premise, it was accessible to the team.
Before disconnecting their supply from the service line, the ECG personnel first informed the other residents of the various infractions they had discovered. The company seized the cable.
After the disconnection, the ECG team engaged some of the residents who claimed to have been paying for the power they were using monthly to the owner of the meter.
Others said they had been paying an average of GH¢35 a month for several months now.
Another infraction the ECG team discovered in the same vicinity was the unlawful movement of fake and normal ECG meters from their original locations to new structures.
Addressing the media, Ing Mensah-Asare indicated that the revenue mobilisation and meter integrity checks were going on well, adding that they had not had any resistance from customers.
He said the customer who illegally connected power to the 33 structures would be pursued to face charges.
He, however, called on customers to ensure that all their meters would be accessible to ECG workers whenever necessary.
Ing Mensah-Asare said anybody engaged in power theft should know that ECG has the mandate to prosecute such customers and the court could fine or jail the potential culprit or suffer both sentences.
