Over $36M paid to JPS, NWC customers in second quarter
Published:Thursday | September 27, 2018 | 12:00 AMPaul Clarke/Gleaner Writer
More than $36 million has been paid to customers of the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) and the National Water Commission (NWC) for breaches of service standards, the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has stated.
This covers the period April to June 2018 and represents a 13 per cent decline over the preceding quarter, where the two service providers paid out $41.5 million to its customers.
This information is contained in the April-June 2018 Quarterly Performance Report, published by the Consumer Affairs Unit at the OUR.
Elizabeth Bennett Marsh, the OUR public education specialist, said that compensation paid over by the JPS during the April-June 2018 quarter amounted to approximately $35.37 million for breaches of its Guaranteed Standards.
"JPS's compliance report indicated that 17,634 breaches were committed, which represents a 12 per cent decline in the number of breaches compared to the preceding quarter," she said. "The frequency of estimated bills accounted for approximately 93 per cent of breaches."
Meanwhile, the NWC reported that it committed 632 breaches during this reporting period, a 75 per cent increase in the number of breaches over the preceding quarter.
NO CLAIM FORMS
The potential pay-out by the NWC was $2,176,260. However, actual payments amounted to $768,200, representing 35 per cent of total potential payments. All actual payments were made by way of automatic credits to the affected accounts.
The remaining 65 per cent of potential payments not made represented those breaches for which the required claim forms were not submitted by affected customers.
"Through the intervention of the OUR's Consumer Affairs Unit (CAU), $87,708.27 was secured for utility customers. Of this, C&WJ (FLOW) and Columbus Communications (FLOW) accounted for two per cent and 53 per cent, respectively, with the NWC accounting for the remaining 45 per cent," Bennett Marsh noted.
She said that during the April-June 2018 period, the number of contacts to the CAU decreased by 30 per cent to 714, compared with the preceding quarter.
According to the OUR, despite the reduction in contacts during the quarter in review, billing concerns continued to be the main reason for customers contacting the CAU.
The OUR also received reports from the JPS and the NWC on their performance in notifying customers within a specified timeline ahead of planned service disruptions.