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Intelligence gathered by Today indicates that the nation�s power distribution company, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG,) will from next month (May) embark on a massive power disconnection exercise of public and private institutions that owes it (ECG) from the period 2008 to 2014. Consequently, Today is also reliably informed that ECG is lacing its boot to publish names of public and private institutions which are currently indebted to the company. According to information available to the paper, the company which has become infamous over the last five � eight years for a disastrous power rationing programme is intending to take such action because its efforts to press upon defaulters to pay their debtors have proved futile. In an interview with Today, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of ECG, Mr. William Boateng, confirmed the planned nation-wide power disconnection companies and individuals indebted to his outfit. A source close to the company�s head office in Accra told Today that management of ECG at a recent meeting took that decision to please President John Dramani Mahama that they are doing the job, so the president will not change them. Sources close to high-ranks of the company said there are whispers of impending shake-up in the company and it is likely to affect some board members and management staff. The fear of being declared redundant, the source averred, is what has pushed management of ECG to take proactive measures to disconnect defaulters thereby publishing their names in newspapers. Today can say on authority that if the ECG does carry out its decision, major organisations, private and public, including educational and financial institutions, will be affected for non-payment of electricity bills for years. Today also gathered that about four hundred and fifty (450) public and private institutions currently owe ECG about GH� 970 million. This is an amount that has accumulated since 2008 and the whopping sum of money has been the subject of public commentary by journalists who raised the concern at a media workshop organised by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) in Accra recently and called on ECG to do something about it. Although President Mahama in 2012 directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to change over from post-paid to pre-paid meters, journalists at the said workshop observed that lack of supervision from President Dramani Mahama to ensure that directive was carried out caused this debt. Today can report that government departments and agencies owe ECG an amount GH�330 million from 2008 to 2014. And interestingly all hotels charge their customers rates in which they embed the power component, which customers must settle on signing into or signing out of the facility. Mobile telephony companies are not left out of the tall ECG�s list of debtors. Close analysis indicates they are unmatched in their accumulated debt profile with some owing in all their operational areas in the ten regions; in some cases they owe in multiple accounts and their separate total debts stand in millions of cedis. Today learnt that organised and wide�spread theft of electricity continues to be a longstanding problem crippling the efforts of ECG despite the deployment of pre-paid metering system. ECG, in the last three-and-a-half years, identified 9,537 illegal electricity connections across the country. In 2011, the company detected 2,929 illegal connections and was able to recover over GH� 5.6 million as revenue to the state. In 2012, the power utility company identified 3,425 illegal connections, out of which over GH� 9 million in revenue was recovered. In 2013, GH�2,242 was identified, out of which GH�11.8 million revenue was recovered by the state. As at March 2014, ECG had detected 941 illegal connections, recovering GH� 3.3 million. �An illegal connection is the drawing or tapping of power from the electrical mains without official approval or unauthorised re-connection of officially disconnected premises� and this has be�come a worrying phenomenon to ECG,� an engineer of the company, Mr. David Asamoah, told journalists recently. Mr. Asamoah said his outfit was installing electricity meters that have automated meter reading facility, adding that �the move is to monitor the meter 24 hours from our office without necessarily going to the customer�s house.� Managing Director (MD) of ECG, Mr. William Hutton Mensah, also said the new pre-paid meters are expected to send signals to operators at ECG�s workstations in case of tampering. �The essence of what we are doing is that we want to get more money to invest in the networks, improve upon our systems so that customers will get a better quality of service from us,� Mr. Mensah pointed out. He continued: �We need to change a lot of equipment, trans�formers and lines; the metering which now we are getting to about 35 per cent pre-paid metering penetration for consumers is certainly going to help reduce commercial losses.