Accra, April 14, GNA - An Electricity Fast-Track Court will soon commence operations to prosecute customers who indulged in fraudulent power deals.

Mr Anthony Gyampo, Acting Managing Director of Electricity Company of Ghana, who announced this, said the processes to establish the court were underway and might be concluded soon for it to begin sitting.

Speaking at the 2010 National Award ceremony for employees, Mr Gyampo warned that the company would not hesitate to punish staff who engaged in negative activities such as meter theft and other counter-productive activities.

"The company will do whatever it takes to bring them to book and to protect the customer from such miscreants. Insiders would certainly attract stiffer sanctions when apprehended," he said. The national employees' awards scheme is part of a larger strategy to create a supportive environment to improve staff performance and productivity.

It is an integral part of a motivational process to build a lasting and enviable corporate culture that would recognise and celebrate exceptional contribution of staff. Mr Gyampo assured customers that ECG would continue to explore and deploy good operational and customer care systems to make service delivery better.

Deputy Minister of Energy, Mr Emmanuel Kofi Buah, expressed the hope that the increasing level of system upgrades and improvements would enable the ECG to considerably reduce the outages. He pledged government assistance to the company to carry out its programmes of systems upgrade and expansion in the sub-transmission network as well as in setting up of additional bulk supply points and primary sub stations to meet the high load growth. Mr Buah asked the employees to eschew illegalities such as wrong tapping of power, wrong reading of electric meters and other malfeasance.

He tasked the management of ECG to improve existing mechanisms, institute proactive and transparent measures to effectively address these perennial challenges of unsavoury acts of disservice to the company.

In all 11 workers received awards for their excellent contributions to the growth of the company in 2010. The overall best national worker award went to Ms Rachel Essandoh, who received a laptop computer, a plaque and a cheque for GH¢2,000.

The first runner-up Mr Godson Alipui received a laptop and a cheque for GH¢1,500 and the second runner-up Felix Lassey Sowatsri received a laptop and a cheque for GH¢1,000. 14 April 11