The former Minister for Power, Dr Kwabena Donkor, has said the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) loses 30 per cent of power through commercial and technical means.

Speaking on Morning Starr with Francis Abban, the former Minister said most state institutions should be given prepaid meters.

“The laboratories and everything else should go on prepaid like the hospital has a huge IGF and yet never see the payment for power as a priority. It was only this year a month or so ago that the Ministry of Health is now saying that going forward the government will not pay for electricity. Are we serious?

“I will only advise that they put the operating theatres on postpaid. The wards, the laboratories not even the morgues should be on prepaid. It is one of the most profitable units of Korle-Bu. In other jurisdictions, the Chief Executive of Korle-Bu will not necessarily be a medical doctor. By the way, it sounds, you are basically running a business organization.

He continued: “The same goes to the Universities, the public Universities apart from the laboratories and probably the lecture halls everything else there should go prepaid. If you look at ECG, ECG loses nearly 30 per cent of what it buys in technical and commercial losses, the Commercial loses are even more. How many businesses have a markup of 30 per cent?”

The lawmaker for Pru Constituency further stated that the only way to curb power theft is by giving our prepaid meters.

“So right from the word go we are in a loss-making situation. So let’s put measures in place that will make stealing difficult. Put the person on prepaid and if the person bypasses the meter then he’s even a bigger thief,” Dr. Donkor stated.

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