The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is working with the Judicial Service to introduce special utility courts in a bid to curb power theft cases across the country, the company’s deputy Managing Director of Engineering and Operations, Kojo Ayensu Obeng, has said.

He noted that all cases of meter-tampering, meter by-passes and direct connections will be treated as theft cases and will be prosecuted as such.

He added that domestic or business owners, including electrical professionals, who are found to have undertaken these illegal connections and power thefts will be liable for prosecution.

The director made this known in a keynote address at the Energy Commission’s 18th Electrical Wiring Certification awards ceremony in Accra, where some 678 awardees including inspectors and practitioners were certified.

He also took the opportunity to encourage certified professionals to be guided by ethics of the profession and uphold integrity and honesty, while continuously learning to abreast themselves with new trends and technologies in the industry.

“It is important that you actively seek new skills and methods to do your work. Try to be innovative. Always keep yourselves abreast with current technology and be conversant with modern tools in the wiring industry. This is one of the ways to remain relevant in your chosen field. I urge you not to be lured by shortcuts for excessive profits,” he said.

He further admonished them and the entire citizenry to desist from any form of illegal power connections, iterating that conniving with home or business owners to engage in power stealing is not only illegal but also threatens the ECG’s sustainability.

“Please be reminded that ECG’s policy of rewarding informants about illegal connections is still in force. Any informant stands to benefit by up to 6 percent cash equivalent of the energy value that is recovered from the culprit based on information provided. We will treat the information provided with the utmost confidentiality,” he added.

For his part, a board member at ECG, Dr. Nicholas Smart-Yeboah, lamented the many laws that exist in the country but are not being put into effect; however, he commended the Energy Commission for proactively taking the initiative to put Electrical Wiring Regulations, 2011 (L.I. 2008) into effect in order to ensure a clean and sustainable energy sector.

The Commission, its Executive-Secretary Oscar Amonoo-Neizer said, is poised to do more in ensuring sanity of the electrical wiring space.

The ceremony saw Noble Akorttia emerging as overall best student of the 2023 training programme.

The Commission’s Electrical Wiring Programme (EWP) has during the past 10 years trained and certified over 14,000 electrical professionals.

The EWP training programme forms part of processes through which the Commission certifies electricians and electrical inspectors in line with the Electrical Wiring Regulations, 2011 (L.I. 2008).