Monrovia – Power theft is becoming the order of the day as the Government of Liberia strives to restore a broken system that has not recovered from its pre-war status where electricity was available and cheaper for all to afford in their homes.
Report by Henry Karmo – [email protected]
“I see these illegal actions as economic sabotage, holding back our overall national development and the growth of our economy” – President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
According to data mentioned in a communication by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to the Legislature, an average of 35 persons were arrested on a daily basis for power theft and some were going through court proceedings.
President Sirleaf informed the Legislature that there not much punishment for people caught in power theft – an action which deferred government’s revenue into the pockets of unscrupulous individuals.
She informed lawmakers through her communication of the need to strengthen the electricity law by amendment to ensure that people caught in power theft were severely punished to serve as deterrent.
“I see these illegal actions as economic sabotage, holding back our overall national development and the growth of our economy,” Pres. Sirleaf asserted in her communication to the House.
She noted that Liberia ranks among one of the highest in the world in terms of losses, amounting to 47% of which 33% is attributed to power theft. Recently the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) embarked on a vigorous campaign to identify and disconnect illegal connections.
As a result of this exercise, many residential and large businesses areas have been found tapping into illegal connections, resulting in a loss of revenue for LEC in the millions of dollars.
The President further said the campaign has had an impact on the reliability of the system, overloading transformers beyond its carrying capacity, causing blackouts and electrical fires and posing a serious risk to public safety.
In her attempt to reference some of the action of power theft, the President in her communication named as some perpetrators like the Monoprix supermarket located in Monrovia, and two individuals she named as Sulaman Jalloh and Fallo Fallamu.
She accused the suspects of by-passing the LEC meters to defraud the government of tens of thousands of dollars per week.
In a statement issued a month ago, LEC claimed it was losing over US$300,000 monthly to power theft, as it led a team in several communities to uncover illegal connections.
Currently as it stands US$350.00 fine awaits consumers found stealing electricity or tampering with electricity meters.
LEC Deputy Managing Director of Customers Services Famata Sirleaf said the penalty was imposed to serve as deterrent for power theft.
Speaking at a town hall meeting with community leaders of the SKD 72nd Community, Mrs. Sirleaf said power theft was a growing phenomenon affecting the revenue generation capacity of the LEC.
She encouraged the community leaders to join the LEC to ensure that electricity theft was curtailed.
The cost of the rehabilitation of the Mount Coffee Hydro was a whopping US$375 million.
According to the data of the government, about 10% of urban residents and less than 2% of rural residents have currently electricity access largely from self-generation with gasoline or diesel generators using expensive imported fuel.
The access rate to public electricity is roughly 1%. In March 2012 LEC served about 5,600 connections in Monrovia (around 2,500 residents from an estimated number of 210,000 households), In August 2012 already 11,000 customers are served by LEC.
A baseline study carried out by Norad estimates that close to 90,000 households and businesses in Monrovia may be served by small gasoline and diesel generators. It is planned to increase the number of connections to the grid to 45,000.