Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
Paul Morgan (left), director general of Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), and Raymond Silvera, deputy director general speaks during a press conference held at the OUR office on the PCJ building, New Kingston, yesterday. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
THE OFFICE of Utilities Regulation (OUR) yesterday ordered an independent audit into the billing process of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) in the wake of continuous customer complaints of unreasonably high bills.
In addition, the utility regulator said it would renegotiate the light and power company's customer service contract, first established in the 1960s.
Yesterday J. Paul Morgan, director general of the OUR, suggested JPS was facing a "crisis of customer confidence".
ABYSMAL SERVICE
Rating the JPS customer service, the OUR director general told The Gleaner he found it 'abysmal'.
"There is no doubt in my mind that aggressive consumer action is the most effective means of extracting high performance from the utility companies," said Mr. Morgan during the regulatory body's quarterly press conference at its Trafalgar Road, St. Andrew, office yesterday.
The audit is to be completed by the end of the year and a new metering regime, agreed to with the Bureau of Standards, should come into force by October 1.
QUALITY CONTROL PROBLEMS
Previous audits in 2002 and 2003 had pointed to deficiencies and quality control problems in the JPS billing process.
According to Mr. Morgan, it was now time to test whether the JPS had met their recommendations.
He said JPS has already submitted its review of its terms and conditions. Public consultations, to last six months, are to begin in the last quarter of the year.
On Tuesday, the OUR granted JPS $470 million of its $1.43 billion claim for damage caused by Hurricane Ivan last September. In response JPS said it was "extremely disappointed" by the ruling which followed its annual inflation adjustment of 3.5 per cent earlier this month.
Mr. Morgan acknowledged the OUR had come under pressure after recommending this increase, as well as fare increase for Jamaica Urban Transit Company. However, he insisted the OUR, as a quasi-judiciary body, had to follow due process.
"We don't... have a facility to arbitrarily 'spank' the companies," he said.
But describing JPS as the OUR's greatest challenge, he said: "The truth is that if customers had a choice, they would be migrating in droves to alternative suppliers."
Mr. Morgan said that, given JPS' monopoly, the OUR would take measures to 'mimic' a competitive environment that would lead to the restoration of customer and consumer confidence.
Of 21,000 accounts identified as problematic after Ivan, Mr. Morgan said the figure had now been narrowed down to 10,749 for which JPS is to refund customers a total of $11,571,649 by the end of September.
