Energy Minister Matthew Opoku Prempeh says the jobs of staff of the Electricity Company Ghana Limited and other power distribution companies will be at risk if the energy sector continues to record the level of losses the industry is currently recording.

The Electricity Company of Ghana is on record to be losing as much as 31% of the power it distributes through technical losses and nefarious activities of persons, who have either connected to the grid illegally or who are using fake electricity meters.

Managing Director of ECG, Kwame Agyeman-Budu said the company recently discovered scores of illegal meters installed along the Ghana-Togo border in the Volta Region.

According to Mr Agyeman-Budu, “such meters run very slowly and do not give a correct account of power consumed”.

Energy Minister Matthew Opoku Prempeh in an address to the ECG staff at the commissioning of a Revenue Mobilization taskforce, set up to reverse the trend, said ECG will have a tough time maintaining its staff if the situation is not rectified.

“It is just not possible for ECG, VRA and GridCo to balance their books with such losses. It is in the interest of all citizens of this country to ensure that we pay for what we consume,” Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh said.

He further noted that “it is in the interest of every staff and management member of ECG, VRA, NEDCO and GRIDco to help avoid the 30% loss being recorded”.

“How much are we making to afford to lose as much as 30% of our labour in losses?” NAPO quizzed.

“I am not talking about salaries and remunerations that may not be paid with such losses. The viability of your companies to employ you is at stake, so it is in our collective interest to ensure that the system works,” the minister warned.

The minister further charged the task force to endeavour not to be compromised by persons engaged in power theft and other illegalities.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director of ECG Kwame Agyeman-Budu said patriotic citizens who will report such illegalities causing the losses to ECG will be rewarded with 6% of accruals from the arrest of such persons.