SOME electricity consumers in the country have described the new pre-paid metering system as fraudulent noting that a card of N2000 may have units worth only N1600 without prior or subsequent explanation to the consumer.

The situation has elicited a nationwide outcry from power consumers to the Federal Government and its regulatory agency, National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) calling for a closer look at the pre-paid metering system to curb the new wave of fraud.

Vanguard investigations which was prompted by series of reports received from affected consumers revealed that the old gimmick that has become the trademark of the analogue metering system during the days of the former National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA) may have crept back into the new system as officials of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) have devised a new means of bypassing the new system and thereby shortchanging Nigerians who are already on the network.

In another report, the PHCN staff appears not have fully understood the workings of the pre-paid metering system as about three houses would have been razed as a result of wrongful connections during installation. However not a few power consumers have cried out to the NERC to take this closer look before this brewing corruptive act grows into a monster as was the case during the NEPA days.

An affected consumer, Mr Yinka Oyediran who submitted a detailed report to Vanguard stated that Nigerians should always check the units loaded on their prepaid cards as he had always believed that the apparent reluctance of PHCN to fully implement the installation of pre-paid meters could be attributed to the realization by PHCN staff that the pre-paid meters would put paid to the old NEPA-staff mentality of lining their own pockets at the expense of the organisation.

According to him, the old analogue system was corrupted with estimated bills which brought about the infamous 'crazy bill', as well as mass disconnection over unpaid bills by a few people.

and even offering to adjust a customer's meter so it would not read the correct amount of units used. All of these presented opportunities for NEPA staff to "negotiate" how much the customer would pay them to "settle" the matter withing themselves- thereby lining the staff's pockets with money and equally depriving NEPA of its revenues.

Oyediran lamented further that with the coming of the pre-paid metering system one would have heaved a sigh of relief as all the aforementioned anomalies were expected to be checked. However, as ever ingenious as the former NEPA staff, PHCN staff have now found some ways to divert PHCN revenues from the pre-paid meters to their own pockets - valid receipts are issued for units of electricity purchased, but somehow the units are not transferred onto the payment card.

"How the staff then divert the corresponding physical cash to themselves is something that PHCN's audit department and NERC need to track down to put an end to this new means of syphoning away revenues from the organisation - there is no way PHCN can prosper and provide the services we aspire to and are paying for if its revenues are continually diverted to private pockets.

To checkmate this particular NEPA-like practice by its staff, PHCN should as a matter of urgency provide card readers so that customers can read and confirm at their offices exactly how many units have been loaded onto their card, rather than to get home only to discover that the number of units loaded does not correspond with what was paid for.

If PHCN management is truly sincere in its efforts to improve its services, it should waste no time at all in completing the transition to pre-paid meters, and providing the simple expedient of card readers for customers just as banks provide screens or readers for customers to see what the bank teller's currency counter is recording, this would in effect safeguard PHCN's customers transactions, and the revenues due to PHCN."

Efforts to get reactions from the PHCN spokesperson Mrs Efuru Igbo on the issue proved abortive as she strayed away from the question while directing our correspondent to the two zones of Eko and Ikeja in Lagos.

Mrs Igbo claimed that she does not comment on such issues except when they are core national issues like the availability of gas to power the plants and so on. She claimed that the PHCN is unbundled and as such questions should be directed to the zones.Efforts however to reach the zones proved abortive as at the time of filling in this report.