The Accra West Region of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) retrieved GH¢1,041,000.00 from 20 customers who illegally connected power to their premises and used it for free during the Yuletide.
The money was retrieved in a special two-week operation organised between December 23, 2019 and January 6, 2020.
The operation dubbed “Christmas Revenue Operation,” audited the electricity connections of individuals, corporate organisations and public places of entertainment in the Accra West Region.
The areas in the Accra West Region include Ablekuma, Dansoman, Bortiano, Korle Bu, Kaneshie, Achimota and Nsawam.
The acting General Manager of the Accra West Region, Ing. Emmanuel Ankomah, who made this known in an interview, said the exercise was organised following intelligence that some customers engaged in illegalities during the Christmas period.
Their modus operandi, he said, was to cheat the system and not pay for the electricity they consumed.
“Statistics on the amount of revenue the company loses through illegalities are alarming, and the region is bent on not only apprehending culprits engaged in illegal activities, but to make the practice unattractive to anyone,” he said.
Sustenance
Ing. Ankomah said the exercise was going to be sustained throughout the year, following the success of the special exercise.
The operation is part of a nationwide crackdown on illegal connections launched by the Managing Director of the ECG, Mr Kwame Agyeman-Budu.
Of the total of 215 meters visited, the culprits (20) were identified to have engaged in various forms of illegalities including meter by-pass, meter tampering and unauthorised service connections.
