Tema-Ghana, April 20, CDA Consult – Wealth In Limited, a Chinese company in Tema Community 12, has transformed its residential flats into a supermarket by changing residential ECG metres into commercial ones.
The fraudulent act was discovered during a routine inspection by Mr. Emmanuel Ankomah, General Manager of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Tema Regional Office, who stated that “as a result of an illegal convention, the company had issues with the tariff class, and they have been prohibited from using their residential place for business purposes.”
He went on to add that the ECG was not formally aware because they had yet to inform them of their commercial activities, and that detecting fraud is tough even when ECG inspectors inspect their metres until they have suspicions and question them.
According to Mr. Ankomah, “we will negotiate with them, and then the payment will be made.” He went on to say, “We will study the pattern of the bill and make sure we do retrospective billing so that all of the components and elements that we had to miscalculate will be recalculated for them to pay.”
Customers who convert their residential premises to commercial ones should contact the ECG Rema Regional Manager in writing.
Mr Ankomah went on to say that having this information would allow the company to change their metre costs from residential to non-residential.
He claimed that the company’s ongoing nationwide revenue mobilisation drive has been mostly successful, as some consumers are gladly paying their bills, while those who were disconnected for failing to meet their responsibilities have not been reinstated.
The ECG Tema General Manager, on the other hand, indicated that a few issues had arisen during the operation, such as clients refusing to allow ECG staff into their premises to inspect their metres.
He indicated that a few such incidents had occurred in the ECG Nungua District, and that the firm had taken steps to address them.
Customers were advised to verify the employees’ identification cards and enable them to fulfil their tasks because many public announcements had been made prior to the exercise, and obstructing personnel from performing their duties was unacceptable.
“Because we have identification, we want to encourage them; if you have any doubts, please ask for the person’s ID, and it is not ideal if you deny us access to our metres.”
“We expect our customers to cooperate with us; we are only in this to dialogue and negotiate in order to collect our money; let’s have our money and we have no problems with you; if you resist us entering your premises, then we need to approach it from a different angle,” he said.
