Five employees of the Asamankese District Office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) have been interdicted for allegedly causing a financial loss of over ?100 million to the company, reports the Free Press.

The four: Mr Nii Tackie, District Manager, Francis Offei Tetteh, District Engineer, Alfred Bossman, Meter Reader and the Disconnection Officer, Mr Asare were interdicted following persistent complaints from customers in the area of extortion and embezzlement against them. Among other things, they were alleged to have condoned in illegal connections, refused to issue receipts in respect of payment made, selling of electricity poles above the illegal sale of meters.

According to one of their victims, she was made to pay ?395,000 for the installation of a meter on her premises, but was given a receipt for only ?195,000 and even this receipt was found to be fake when she cross-checked from Koforidua.

In another instance, a customer who wanted power at her new building purchased poles for the purpose but they rejected the poles as substandard and asked her to pay ?2.5m for new poles. However, after she paid the money, she detected that they had used the original poles they rejected for the work.

There were also numerous complaints about people being disconnected at the whims of these officers and when reconnection fees were paid, no receipts were issued.