Liberia: LEC — A National Disgrace!

Freeman Ford Dennis

The Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) has turned itself into a national disgrace. The corporation is so ineffectual and inept in its mission and its stated purpose, that it has become a national embarrassment and subsequently, in the Liberian way of lessening stress, a joke. One of the jokes going around a short time ago was the pictures of the capital cities of West African countries at night. Every picture showed a colorful skyline, except for that of Monrovia. Monrovia’s picture was totally black!

The SOLE and ONLY purpose for the existence of the LEC is to provide electricity to the nation on a consistent and regular basis. This they have miserably failed to do on a consistent and regular basis. In the Sinkor Community where I live, a residential community, there are five supermarkets, six banks, a major referral hospital (JFK), several other clinics and hospitals, as well as innumerable small businesses who cannot afford to run a generator. For several weeks there have been multiple days and nights in a row of absolutely no LEC provided electricity. The remaining days, LEC sometimes deign to provide between one and eight hours per day when they feel like doing so. 

The LEC deliberately misrepresented, to the Liberian Electricity Regulatory Commission (LERC), its capabilities and capacity to meet the required customer demand in the dry season 

Excerpt from the LERC press release dated Tuesday, February 15, 2022:

“LERC recalls that during the LEC tariff review process, the Commission, on numerous occasions, expressed concerns about the seasonal variations impacting Mount Coffee generation capacity especially during the Dry Season, to which LEC assured the LERC that effective January 2022, it would have sufficient fuel stock to generate 29.4 MW from the Bushrod Thermal Plant complemented by power imports via the Transco-CLSG arrangements during the Season.”

In most countries, when the management misrepresents essential information to the regulators (LERC) there are consequences for those who are responsible for the misrepresentation.  But in Liberia nothing happens; we fall back into the general modus operandi of the country: No accountability, no responsibility and therefore no consequences except for the Liberian people suffering for the ineptitude of the misrepresentation perpetrators. 

Everybody in Liberia, with an iota of intelligence, knows that during the dry season the water levels at the Mount Coffee Hydro Plant drops to a level the hydro cannot run at the capacity required to produce the quantity of electricity required for the nation. The Luke Diesel Generating Plant was built and upgraded to provide the additional load required during the dry season when the hydro water level is low. But of course this requires planning and forethought – something the LEC appears either incapable of or totally incompetent at. 

In case the LEC management does not know, the corporation, on a daily basis violates the minimum service levels required when having their electricity taken away for more than EIGHT – I repeat EIGHT (8) – hours at any time for power shedding. 

Excerpt from the LERC press release dated Tuesday, February 15, 2022:

“The load shedding being carried out by the LEC as observed is in violation of the minimum service levels in Schedule Two (2) of the Customer Service and Quality of Supply Regulations (CSQOSR), which ensures that duration of outages cannot exceed eight hours and therefore the commission directs LEC to take urgent steps to curtail these load shedding.”

Second, the LEC is now prepaid. It receives upfront (prepaid) money from its customers to provide them electricity and they are not providing it. The prepayment should have helped the LEC prepare for the dry season. Unfortunately this has not been the case and the customers are suffering. Those customers who purchase LEC credit in large amounts have credit on their accounts and are still having to purchase generator fuel as well as maintain generators. This is grossly unacceptable. Of course this will affect the LEC shortly as it is still paying salaries and meeting other expenses with little or no income being generated. When the rains return and the hydro returns to full capacity, the customers who purchase large amounts of credit will still have credit to utilize and the LEC will still not be generating much income. 

Let us now turn our attention to theft of current as the LEC routinely talks about as a reason they cannot provide consistent electricity due to the loss of revenue emanating from current theft.

LEC makes it very difficult for customers to get on the system! In February 2021, I applied for three meters for our apartment building. The field work required by the LEC to be done by their technicians was completed in February. It then took six months for the LEC to give me an invoice. It was only through the intervention of the Chairman of the Board that the invoices were produced. It then took me another week to pay the invoices because the invoices were incorrect and needed to be revised. After that, it took another month and a half for the LEC to install the meters. I had to beg the LEC, and then appeal above their heads to legally connect me. The LEC passively encourages potential customers who are desperate for electricity to find alternate means which tend to be illegal. 

The LEC put a power shedding schedule on its website. But before one can even read the schedule, there is a disclaimer as if to say we are only putting this up to comply with the regulations. The LEC has NEVER abided by the schedule; rendering said schedule is totally useless and a waste of time. The Call Center rarely, if ever, has any information of any help to customers. Some of the more diligent and helpful personnel in the center would at times call for the information and then call back to inform the customers. The call center is mostly ineffectual as the personnel there are rarely given any relevant information on the status of the system.

The Board of Directors and/or LERC must see to it that there are some consequences for the resultant irreparable damage caused to the Liberian economy due to the LEC’s totally ineffective performance and those responsible held accountable. 

I could go on for many more pages on the litany of woes and ineffectiveness emanating from the LEC (to quote the Late President William R. Tolbert – “Malfeasance, Misfeasance and Nonfeasance”), but I will stop here in order to not bore readers who are painfully aware of the foregoing and much more.

I strongly urge Liberians to start thinking about instituting a class action lawsuit against the LEC for damages incurred through the loss of income and damage to perishable food stuff. The loss in the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that can be directly attributable to the LEC and its disastrous, bordering on non-performance, is substantial. As one meme currently going viral on social media reads; 

“To sue LEC will be a very easy case to win… Imagine even the presiding judge will serve as ur witness.”

I will stop here with this challenge to the LEC and its management:
Either the LEC and its management show some respect and consideration for its customers and INSTANTLY explain to the Liberian public what the immediate and medium-term plans are to correct this disgraceful and atrocious service, with hard timelines, or put up the white flag and admit to the Liberian people that you, as a management, are incapable of correcting the situation and properly managing the corporation and therefore are resigning with IMMEDIATE effect.

Editor note: The following is the sole opinion of and observations by Freeman Ford Dennis and does not necessarily constitute the views or opinions of the Daily Observer.