Monrovia – Unprecedentedly, a team of the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) under the new management headed by Foday Soko Sackor, toured communities in Monrovia and its suburbs asking residents of their problems they had with electricity supply and solving them on the spot.
Report by Al Varney Rogers|[email protected]
“We are rehabilitating meters, rehabilitating lines, testing of meters. We are just trying to make the people know that we care. Our objective for the next 15 days is to rehabilitate over 1,000 lines. Over 1,000 customers’ lines will be rehabilitated or reconnected” – LEC Managing Director, Foday Soko Sackor
The team toured of Clara Town, hearing complaints, installing missing meters and connecting household that were off.
Sackor said the tour was to address meter and transformer complaints coming from customers.
“We’ve been getting a lot of complaints from residence in this area that they have been experiencing a lot of issues with their meter and their transformer. So we are carrying out a campaign in this entire community in the next few days.
“We are rehabilitating meters, rehabilitating lines, testing of meters. We are just trying to make the people know that we care. Our objective for the next 15 days is to rehabilitate over 1,000 lines. Over 1,000 customers’ lines will be rehabilitated or reconnected,” Sackor said.
Sackor urged the community to take charge of campaign and that they should not allow unauthorized individuals to connect meter or bring down meter.
“We both have to help each other. So we are launching a massive campaign in collaboration with the media, in collaboration with the citizens, too, as well. If you see anybody connecting any faulty meter or anybody connecting meter that they should not be connecting or bringing meter down, let us know. The campaign has already started,” Sackor said.
The New LEC Managing Director said the new team has disconnected more than 250 meters in West Point and other communities. “It is a citywide campaign,” he said.
Sackor said customers subscribing with LEC plights would be addressed in a timely manner, adding that customer’s service would be at the heart of his administration.
“The citizens should expect this new administration that we care. We will be connecting you, and we will be responding to your plights. When you call, somebody will be on the other side listening. We will come over to solve your problem,” he said.
He attributed frequent power outages to ongoing synchronization between the heavy fuel oil generators and the Mount Coffee Hydro.
“We issued a press statement today, yesterday and about a week ago. When we turned the hydro on, we have about 22 mega watts coming from there; it has to be synchronized with our Bushrod Island facilities as well,” Sackor added.
Sackor said: “Due to the process of synchronization over the next month or two, we will be experiencing a little interruption here and there. These are interruptions we should all expect for the betterment of the system.
He disclosed that the new management was also launching a new campaign against power theft, noting there will be zero tolerance against power theft.
“We are asking the community, too, to join us, because the people who are stealing current are from the same community. So we are asking you to be vigilant,” he said.
“Inform us of these individuals who are stealing current; because it makes it difficult for us to generate revenue to come and connect you. Because if you do not let us know, and you don’t help us in this fight, it means we all will be affected.”
The Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) on December 22, began connecting additional 700 backlog customers and Raymond Camp in Harrisburg for the first time in its history received electricity from LEC upon the commissioning of Mount Coffee Hydro.
The New LEC MD said he intends to make LEC more accessible to residents of Monrovia and its environs.
“We want to show that Liberians can govern their own sector, we want to demonstrate our competency, we want to put our customers first, and the mentality that our customers come second is unacceptable. We want to see LEC more accessible.
“We want to curb power theft. We want to make sure that we increase the number of connections. It is a commodity we have that the people need, so we have to make it available.”
“We want the people to tell us ‘Thank you’ at the end of the day. People near the grid are now benefiting. Challenges at LEC are enormous, but there is no room from excuses. This new LEC is putting customer first.”