The Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) has denied claims that the company is short for meter; something many believed is the reason for the slow and limited connection of citizens to the power supply lines.
This, the company’s General Coordinator for Metering, Ernest Mendee stated that the LEC is not in short supply of meters, noting that the delay in delivering meters to some paying customers is down to themselves not answering phone calls while others provided inactive numbers.
He said, “Customers who did not pick up their phones can come back and log in again before we can redeliver the meters, and some numbers are always off, some probably changed their numbers, and maybe some phones got stolen. This makes it hard for us to contact and get their location.”
However, his clarification came after some customers who were disconnected by the LEC power theft task force for illegal connection have begun reconnecting themselves on grounds that they have not received the meters paid for from the company.
But Mendee stated, “Firstly, when we started, we were doing mass connections, where we go to the field, collect the customer information that we have on our data, and serve the customer from a system called the drug fund, where all of the customers who paid have their information, the amount they paid, how many meters they paid for, their names, and we served them.”
“And that process has ended in November. Folks were trooping in daily to pay the fines and get legally reconnected. Because of the fast pace of the exercise, the team received a lot of support and cooperation from residents,” he said.
He added that the team has installed a little over 13,000 meters in 10 communities in Paynesville since the exercise against power theft started last year, and is therefore calling on customers to desist and ensure they are all connected.