THE FATE of the $10 million audit into the Jamaica Public Service Company's (JPS) billing system will be decided next week.
Audits into the system experienced a setback after auditing firm Pricewater-houseCoopers reported several concerns. The firm was contracted by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR).
According to David Geddes, director of consumer and public affairs at the OUR, the regulatory body and the auditing firm met Tuesday to work out the glitches that had been previously referred to the company's legal team.
"Coming out of that meeting, some options have been put on the table that we will be looking at and then we will meet again next week to finalise the way forward," Mr. Geddes revealed. "The OUR feels that JPS should be audited and audited thoroughly and within a reasonable time frame."
He noted that the auditing will continue as soon as the issues are sorted out.
"We are examining some options and we expect that we will come to some clear position by next week," he said.
Mr. Geddes pointed out that the problems stemmed from a request earlier this year from JPS that Pricewater-houseCoopers sign an agreement to protect confidential commercial information from being made public.
An audit into the billing system of JPS was ordered by the OUR following reports from consumers that they had received excessively high electricity bills in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan, in 2004.
