John Myers Jr., Staff Reporter
Morgan: The JPS has submitted the report and the OUR has decided not to file a lawsuit. - FILE
THE OFFICE of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has backed away from a decision to take legal action against the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) following the companys' submission of a report on customers' accounts that were over-billed last year.
J. Paul Morgan, director-general of the OUR, said Monday that the JPS had submitted the report and the OUR has therefore decided not to file a lawsuit against the utility company. He said the JPS has until the end of June to comply with a directive to supply recommendations on exactly how it intends to compensate customers who received irregular bills last November.
"There is nothing for us to do at this point, we're just allowing them to proceed to comply with the directive that they have (to submit the recommendations on the method of compensation)," Mr. Morgan told The Gleaner.
DIRECTIVES TO JPS
The JPS was directed in January to provide the report on the 21,000 accounts that were found to be faulty, following widespread complaints from customers of
receiving unusually high bills in November last year, two months after Hurricane Ivan. Based on investigations into the problem by the OUR, the JPS was found to be at fault in reading the customers' electricity meters.
The OUR then gave the light and power company until the end of February to submit the report on the affected customers' accounts. The JPS was also ordered to provide recommendations on how it intends to compensate the affected customers. This it did in March, but was rejected by the OUR, citing concerns that the recommended methodology would result in some customers being over-compensated and others under-compensated.
Officials of the OUR also questioned whether the recommended methodology submitted was in keeping with the guidelines issued to the JPS.
However, up to two weeks ago the JPS had still not submitted the report on the affected accounts. David Geddes, the OUR's director of communications and customer service, in an interview with The Gleaner, said the OUR's legal team was in the process of filing a lawsuit against the JPS to force the electricity utility to comply.
