LEC loses US$18m

Liberia Electricity Corporation or LEC Managing Director Mr. Foley Sackor Says the corporation losses US$18 million per annum to power theft.
Mr. Sackor told the Senate Committee on Lands, Mines and Energy on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, 22 February that LEC is losing 33 kilo wax to power theft on a monthly basis, amounting to US$1.5 million per month.

Totaling the monthly losses by one year, Mr. Sackor told the Senate Committee that the LEC is deprived of US$18 million per year.
He said it was unfortunate that thieves were stealing huge portion of the already insufficient power that is being generated on a daily basis, while government continues to struggle with support from
international partners, to provide power to the people.
The LEC chief said power theft do not involve only low income earners, but also some big business entities allegedly including the Monoprix Supermarket and Mamba Point Hotel, among others.
Mr. Sackor said the LEC management has already taken the two business entities to court for legal redress. He complained that power theft had created shortfall in the spread of electricity throughout the
country, especially Monrovia and its environs.
He announced that the LEC has launched customer’s connection campaign that began in Clara Town on Bushrod Island, and is expected to benefit over 2,500 backlogs of new connections and faulty meters.
He told the Senate Committee that the LEC team, with just few weeks of operation, has connected 250 homes and installed 63 streets in Raymond
Town, Harrisburg Township, along with 530 street lights on Bushrod Island, Central Monrovia, Sinkor and Congo Town.
Additionally, he said 1000 homes were connected in Matadi, and the campaign has spread to other places including, Rehab, ELWA, Duport Road, SD Cooper Road, Gardnersville, Stephen Tolbert Estate and Lower Johnsonville.
Mr. Sackor vowed to wage a massive campaign against power theft across the LEC network in an effort to curb the phenomenon and promised a more customer-centered management team that will go out and address customers’ complaints.
The Managing Director also told the Senate Committee members government is indebted to her Ivorian counterpart US$2 million for the cross border electricity of which Nimba and other places are beneficiaries.
Concerning ‘appalling’ services provided customers, Mr. Sackor said his team is active in resolving the crisis, adding that the LEC will be out in the communities every week to ensure that its services are made available to customers.
—Editing by Winston W. Parley