Effectively Manage Load Shedding � Minister Urges ECG

The Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Emmanuel Kofi Buah has charged the management of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to effectively manage the load shedding timetable to ensure the equitable distribution of available power and enable customers to plan the use of their share of the power. Mr. Buah also urged the employees to strive harder to reduce the system losses through power theft from the current level to more acceptable levels since the revenue was needed to ensure that ECG was properly resourced to discharge its duties. Delivering his address at the 10th National Best Employee Awards ceremony of ECG, the sector Minister said government was working assiduously to address the current challenges facing the power sector. He advised the workers to put their best foot forward in recouping what was owed them by customers and also called on them to exhibit positive attitudes at the work place to enhance good performance and corporate success. �My consolation is in the fact that you are evolving an enduring system to improve upon the quality of service delivery to the citizenry which must translate into tangible improvement in the service to the customer,� he said. He commended management of ECG, Volta River Authority (VRA) and GRIDCo for instituting performance management procedures as a measure of ensuring individual responsibility and corporate advancement to transform the work culture of these utilities. Mr Jonathan Asante, Principal Technical Engineer of Accra East (ECG) emerged the overall 2012 National Best Employee of ECG and received GH�2000, certificate, a plaque, laptop and a trip to visit any country of his choice abroad. Mr Stephen Ackah, a system operator in the Central Region, was the first runner-up and received GH�1000, certificate, a plaque and a laptop while Mr Haruna Kpakpo Saka, a foreman at the Accra West Region won the second runner-up award receiving GH�1000, certificate, a plaque and a laptop. The Managing Director of ECG, William Hutton-Mensah said over the years it had become more evident that technical competence alone could not deliver the corporate success of the company and that the missing link to staff performance had been attitudinal. �The need for the right behavioral competence, appreciable character traits, personal discipline and positive attitudes cannot be over emphasized in every field of endeavor and it is mainly attitude that would improve the fortunes of the company,� he said. According to him, the company had embarked on live-line work project to carry out planned maintenance and fix faults on energized networks to benefit customers since they would enjoy regularised electricity. Mr Hutton-Mensah added that management was improving upon the speed and accuracy of its billing process through the use of data loggers and the Automatic Meter Reading Technologies and urged employees of the company to be disciplined and work hard to protect its image.