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The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has taken the Osu Police Barracks in Accra off the national grid due to illegal connection.

The exercise affected three blocks at the barracks, officials of the power distributor said.

ECG began a nationwide revenue mobilisation exercise on Monday (20 March 2023) to recover payment for all unpaid customer bills. The money owed amounts to over GHC5.7 billion.

The national revenue mobilisation taskforce also discovered that the barracks owe ECG for the past 12 months.

“Since it’s an illegal connection, we have the first right to disconnect before we deal with issues,” the manager in charge of external communications at ECG, Laila Abubakari, was quoted by the Daily Graphic.

She said the police will have to settle their bill for the past 12 months before power can be restored.
 
“The Ghana police would have to come to ECG where a bill will be generated for them covering a period of 12 months.

“The administration block also owes, but due to security implications, we’ve spared that facility while we discuss further the amount involved. We consider the police accommodation facilities (blocks) a general facility hence the disconnection,” Abubakari added.

 
ECG said it will sustain the exercise to retrieve the GHC5.7 billion on their books.

Stop calling me
Meanwhile, the MD of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has served notice to defaulting customers and organisations that it will soon start naming and shaming to further its revenue mobilisation drive.

Appearing on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Wednesday (22 March), Samuel Mahama, said people calling to intervene on behalf of defaulters should desist.

“The phone calls should stop because, at the end of the day, you have to do the right thing. Let’s not politicise this,” Mahama said.

“As for the calls, they keep coming because we have realised that we are so quick to point out when it comes to state agencies that haven’t paid,” he said.

“So, next week if they don’t pick up the slack, we are going to do that name and shame for the people of Ghana to see who the major culprits are,” Mahama added.