POLICE MOUNT SEARCH FOR ECG ENGINEER (PAGE 51, NOV 4. 2010)

THE Police in Tema have mounted a search for an engineer of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), George Gbafah, who allegedly connived with officials of Melody Industries Limited, a Chinese-owned company at the Tema Heavy Industrial Area, to consume more than GH¢107,154.23 energy through illegal connection.
Already, the police have arrested the Assistant Manager of the Chinese company, Hao Lin also known as Maxwell, to help in their investigations.
The Tema Regional Director of the ECG, Mr Felix Fiebor, told the Daily Graphic that during an operation to check illegal connection in Tema last Friday and acting upon a tip off, a team from the National Revenue Loss Control Unit of the Company went to the Melody Industries Limited, producers of mineral water bottles, on Tuesday October 26, 2010 to inspect the electrical lines.
During the operation it was detected that the company was producing without meters, meaning that it was accumulating losses to the ECG.
He said the lines were disconnected on Tuesday and officials of the company asked to report and settle their indebtedness.
Mr Fiebor said when the team went back in the company of the police to ensure that the lines had not been reconnected, the factory was surprisingly found in full production.
The ECG officials immediately disconnected the lines and ordered that all the machines be put off.
A closer examination of the factory revealed that the company had mounted its own transformer and connected fresh lines to two new ECG project poles.
During interrogation, the Assistant Manager said George Gbafa was the one who did the connections for them.
In another development, the team disconnected other illegal connections at the Tema Light Industrial Area, where an Indian company, Zeetech Limited, produced sachet water packs.
The company had connected the cables directly to the circuit breakers and was, therefore, operating outside the meters, resulting in a loss of GH¢71,590 over a period of 18 months.
The Manager, Mr Francis Selvaraj, was not at the factory when the team went on the operation at the company but there was information later that he had gone to make part payment to avoid prosecution.
When the resident electrician of the company, Mr Teye Mama, was questioned, he explained that he did the illegal connections to save the company from going bankrupt.
A chain of 10 huge containers which had been converted into cold stores were also disconnected at the fishing harbour.
The owners of the containers allegedly put off the cold stores during the day and put them on in the night to freeze fish, and therefore, avoided the watchful eyes of the ECG officials.
The original owners allegedly disappeared to avoid being picked up by the police and their representatives were sent to the Community One Police Station.
Mr Fiebor appealed to the public to help arrest people who had illegally connected power to their homes and factories.
He said the ECG lost 30 per cent of every amount of power sold out, resulting in losses to the company.
Mr Fiebor said the ECG would not shield any official who would condone illegalities.