{"id":18352,"date":"2022-06-29T17:56:24","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T17:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/poor-lec-service-due-to-govt-debt"},"modified":"2022-06-29T18:03:43","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T18:03:43","slug":"poor-lec-service-due-to-govt-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/poor-lec-service-due-to-govt-debt","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Poor LEC Service Due to Gov\u2019t Debt\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. <\/strong><\/span>The agencies, which are 11 in all, include the Monrovia City Corporation, headed by Mayor Jefferson Koijee, a stalwart in the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change government; the Environmental Protection Agency; Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services; and the University of Liberia.<\/p>\n

Combined, these agencies, along with the Independent National Human Rights Commission, National Housing Authority, National Transit Authority, National Aids Control Program, National Disaster Management Agency, National Drug Service, and National Oil Company of Liberia, owe the LEC US$1,321,196 for the supply of electricity services.<\/p>\n

The debt, according to the Board of Commissioners of the Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission (LERC), which is headed by Dr. Lawrence Sekajipo, has described the agencies concerned as neglectful and chronic debtors.\u201cThe LERC expressed dissatisfaction that several public agencies have accrued an energy debt of US$1,321,196 for the supply of electricity services by LEC,\u201d a release from the energy regulator said. \u201cThe Commission calls on the management of the LEC to immediately embark on a massive disconnection exercise of \u201cthese delinquents and persistent debtors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The LERC order comes after President George Weah a month ago instructed the LEC to disconnect anyone who is not paying their bills or who has an illegal connection, regardless of their status.<\/p>\n

The President gave the order during an energy sectoral meeting he hosted with diplomatic partners as well as other officials of the government, to find an amicable solution to the electricity nightmare in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also receive a commitment from the President to disconnect anyone who is not paying their bills or who has an illegal connection, regardless of whether you are a government official or a government entity, and electricity is something that is not free,\u201d said Monie Captan, the Chairman of the Board of Directors at LEC.<\/p>\n

The LERC, in defense of its order, argued in the release that the move is not illegal but wants to be carried out in accordance with Regulations 28 of the Customer Service and Quality of Supply Regulations which provides that \u201cA service provider may disconnect service to a customer when the customer: fails to pay a bill for the service for more than 14 days from the date of the delivery of the demand for payment by the service provider.\u201d<\/p>\n

The LREC added that LEC informed them as a regulator that several autonomous agencies and commissions of government have failed to settle their energy debts and were now in a \u201cdelinquent status\u201d with the corporation \u2014 leaving it short of funds needed for effective service.\u201cThe commission supports LEC\u2019s decision that persistently defaulting customers and illegal electricity consumers are immediately disconnected by the Corporation,\u201d the release noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere remains a compelling need for consumers of electricity to continue to pay their bills to ensure that the public electricity utility, the Liberia Electricity Corporation, generates enough revenue to provide a reliable and stable service to the people of Liberia.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, apart from the issue of delinquent payment, the LEC suffers from chronic power theft, which has been criminalized and can lead to more than two years of jail term and a fine.<\/p>\n

Power theft is being practiced by both the rich and the poor \u2014 creating a situation where 60% of the electricity generated by the state-owned power utility becomes stolen through illegal connections. These illegal connections, which are something carried out by LEC staff, have for four years also robbed the corporation of much-needed cash to extend the power supply.<\/p>\n

So far, less than 20% of Liberians have access to electricity; however, the government has set itself the target of rolling out electricity to 70% of Monrovia’s population of more than one million by 2030.<\/p>\n

But such ambition is highly unlikely when LEC, according to its manager, is losing 60 percent of its revenue to power theft, amounting to more than US$4 million monthly.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Liberia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. The agencies, which are 11 in all, include the Monrovia City Corporation, headed by Mayor Jefferson Koijee, a stalwart in the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change government; the Environmental Protection Agency; Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services; and the University of Liberia. Combined, these agencies, along with the Independent National Human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":18351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-18352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-liberia","tag-liberia"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Poor LEC Service Due to Gov\u2019t Debt\u2019 - Liberia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The agencies, which are 11 in all, include the Monrovia City Corporation, headed by Mayor Jefferson Koijee, a stalwart i ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/poor-lec-service-due-to-govt-debt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Poor LEC Service Due to Gov\u2019t Debt\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The agencies, which are 11 in all, include the Monrovia City Corporation, headed by Mayor Jefferson Koijee, a stalwart i ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/poor-lec-service-due-to-govt-debt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Liberia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-29T17:56:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-29T18:03:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_9-62bc93e44be15.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"860\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/poor-lec-service-due-to-govt-debt#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/poor-lec-service-due-to-govt-debt\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"\u2018Poor LEC Service Due to Gov\u2019t Debt\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-29T17:56:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-29T18:03:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/poor-lec-service-due-to-govt-debt\"},\"wordCount\":651,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/poor-lec-service-due-to-govt-debt#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_9-62bc93e44be15.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Liberia\",\"Liberia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/poor-lec-service-due-to-govt-debt#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/poor-lec-service-due-to-govt-debt\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/poor-lec-service-due-to-govt-debt\",\"name\":\"\u2018Poor LEC Service Due to Gov\u2019t Debt\u2019 - 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