The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has cautioned customers in the Krobo District of the activities of some unscrupulous persons vending fake postpaid meters in the area.
Mr Tetteh Apan, Krobo District ECG Engineer, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Tema that the company had launched a public education campaign to expose the nefarious activities of the illegal and fake postpaid meter dealers.
Mr Apan disclosed that customers were being scammed by vendors of fake meters, as they posed as ECG workers, approached potential customers, and then eventually gave them these fake meters.
He said that “customers are usually caught unawares by these vendors of fake meters which are made to seem like they are from ECG,” adding that the nameplates of the meters were changed to often imitate the original meters.
The public education is also to arm the residents with details to identify fake postpaid meters.
Mr Apan explained that ECG officials uncovered the activities of the unscrupulous fake postpaid meter dealers during routine monitoring exercises.
“Our officials detected that a number of customers had fake meters installed at their premises,” Mr. Apan explained.
He said the fake postpaid meters were not captured on the ECG system, stressing that even though some of the fake meters worked all right the customers stood the risk of not receiving bills which would accumulate and create payment problems for the customer in the future.
He explained that the ECG could determine and calculate the total amount of energy consumed through the fake meters and the user would be billed accordingly.
The ECG District Engineer stated that the energy supply of the user would also be cut off and the fake postpaid meter user would then be directed to report to the ECG office to start the process of acquiring a meter correctly.
He encouraged potential customers of ECG and the public to avoid the usage of such fake meters adding that such meters would be discovered by the company as the monitoring and auditing of energy meters and other equipment was done as part of its core activities.
Mr. Apan explained that the regular auditing was to ensure the integrity of the meters and equipment for effective supply of power to customers, noting that when fake meters were discovered they would be confiscated by the ECG.
He pleaded with the public to offer information about the activities of the fake postpaid meter dealers to the company.
