JPS forks out $66m in customer compensation

The Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Company was forced to pay more than $66 million in compensatory payments to customers between January and March this year, after committing over 29,000 guaranteed standards breaches in its operations, the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) is reporting.

The breaches represent an 18 per cent increase when compared to the preceding period.

For that same period, the State-owned National Water Commission (NWC) paid customers $1.6 million for just over 2,000 breaches, an eight per cent decrease when compared to the previous period.

Between October and March, the two companies paid $1.1 million following customer complaints and appeals, with NWC reversing charges totalling $630,000, while JPS reversals amounted to $490,000.

FLOW accounted for under one per cent of the total amount.

The OUR said the payments were applied automatically to affected customers’ accounts.

Guaranteed standards regarding estimated bills – which restricts JPS from sending more than two consecutive estimates without a penalty; reconnection – which requires that JPS restores supply within 24 hours of payment of overdue amounts; and connection to supply – which prescribes the time within which JPS is to make a simple connection, accounted for 99 per cent of the breaches committed by JPS.

The OUR noted that NWC breaches had a potential payout of approximately $8.8 million but actual payments amounted to approximately $1.67 million or 19 per cent of total potential payments.

It said these payments were made by way of automatic credits to the affected accounts.

The remaining 81 per cent of potential payments not made represented those breaches for which the required claim forms were not submitted for validation, the OUR said.

The standards with the highest incidents of breaches for the NWC were: complaint investigations – which require that the water company completes investigations and responds or provides an update within 30 workings days of receipt of a complaint; meter repair/replacement – which stipulates that defective meters are to be verified, repaired/replaced within 20 working days; and access/new service connection – which requires NWC to connect a new supply within 10 working days.

These accounted for 94 per cent of total breaches.

The OUR said it implemented guaranteed standards for JPS and NWC to hold them accountable for any breach of basic service standards to customers.

Breaches attract a compensatory payment to affected customers, payable on customers’ service accounts.

The OUR said between January and March its Consumer Affairs Unit received 677 contacts which represented a 24 per cent decrease compared to the preceding period.

“The data shows that the most significant reductions were in the complaint categories of disconnection (-44 per cent), interruption of service (-35 per cent), guaranteed standard (-17 per cent), billing matters (-16 per cent) and poor service quality (8 per cent).

editorial@gleanerjm.com