Fake ECG Staff Busted, 20 Illegal Connections Detected
The Revenue Protection Team of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in Tema has caused the police to arrest a fake staff of the company who have been selling meters to residents of Klagon and its environs.
He was said to have installed a commercial meter supposed to be at Nungua to someone at Klagon.
The suspect has since been arrested and handed over to the Klagon Police for further investigation and possible prosecution.
The Nungua District Manager of ECG, Prosper Avadetsi, mentioned that his outfit received reports about some illegal activities within Sakumono, Nungua and its neighborhoods.
Based on the tip off, a monitoring team was instituted to embark on a 6 weeks program to check the possibility of illegal connections in the said areas, according to him.
He mentioned that the monitoring programme, which was started in the third week of September 2021 is expected to end in October 2021.
Last week, the monitoring team detected that some wooden structures within the catchment area have been connected to power directly from the network, adding that about 20 wooden structures also have connected power from one meter, a situation which the company frowns upon.
“We had reports from the public on suspicion that a particular area filled with kiosks within our operational areas had connected power illegally.
“All those found out to have connected power illegally had their supply disconnected and processed for the Revenue Protection Unit of the Tema Region to take over,” the District Manager stated.
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Mr. Avadetsi further noted that at one premises in Klagon, the Monitoring Team realized that a commercial meter had been mounted at a residential facility.
“Because every meter has a geocode which pre-determines the locality for which the meter is to be used, and it was realized, per the geocode of the meter, that it was to be in Nungua and not Klagon. Further on-field investigations with the customer revealed that a gentleman who had posed as an ECG worker was the one who had installed that meter,” he stated.
According to him, the Team was able to apprehend the gentleman, who has since been handed over to the Klagon Police.
The Nungua District Manager therefore urged the public “to desist from contracting ECG services from persons who are not workers or authorized agents of the company as this could lead to loss of resources for potential customers as well as loss of revenue for the company.”