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  • 8 months ago
The Regulated Industries Commission says, it has questions about the money which the Water and Sewerage Authority claims to have spent on some projects, among other concerns.

The Authority is due to report back to the Commission in early April. Meantime, the RIC is seeking legislative amendments, to expand its enforcement capabilities. Rynessa Cutting has more.
Transcript
00:00The role of the Regulated Industries Commission is to hold public utilities to account,
00:06but the RIC reports that it has found itself constrained in its ability to fully execute its intended function.
00:14We have proposed amendments with respect to the types of orders and directives that the Commission can issue,
00:24because it is recognised that currently there are some limitations.
00:32Again, that is something which we have been in discussion with the line ministry on,
00:39so we haven't come to the end of those discussions.
00:44The Ministry of Public Utilities confirms that the required amendments were proposed since 2016,
00:51but have not been affected.
00:54There have been certain, I will put it like this, differences of perspectives among the key players,
01:07and of course there was some time taken to try to work that through.
01:12And so now I think we are at a point where, having looked at the comments of the RIC,
01:18the comments of TNTEC, that we are ready to move forward to the other stakeholders to bring them on board.
01:25In the meantime, the RIC has requested certain information of the Ward and Sewage Authority as it pertains to its operations.
01:34Generally, we would see a number of projects, some of them not fully justified,
01:38some of them we may want to know is that really the true cost, how have you benchmarked it,
01:45what, you know, we may have information as to, that's a different information,
01:51that we may say well this looks a bit high and we want to know how do you justify the increase.
01:57So there are a number of clarifications.
01:59Those clarifications were sent to WASA, as you indicated, in November,
02:04and quite recently we received a letter from WASA saying that they are still looking at them,
02:09and they will respond by April the 4th.
02:12So we are looking forward to getting those responses,
02:17and I would also just say that those responses, I hope they are satisfactory,
02:22but if they are not, we will continue to engage with WASA.
02:26The Commission explains that these queries were raised as part of the rate review process,
02:32the report for which is still before Cabinet.
02:35As the RIC, we try to be as independent as possible from the work of the Ministry, Cabinet,
02:42and all of that type of work.
02:45So it's not something that we follow up on with them to ask them what is happening.
02:50A lot of the information we read in the press as are the members of the public.
02:56So to the best of our knowledge, it is still before Cabinet.
03:00Neither the Commission nor the Ministry of Public Utilities could indicate when the revised rates will take effect,
03:07but with around $2 billion owed to TNTEC by state agencies,
03:12the Commission is calling for action to be taken.
03:16Now we do appreciate that there are essential services, hospitals, schools, police stations, and so on,
03:24and it may be difficult to say disconnect them because of the service that the very public receives,
03:30but it cannot be an open-ended situation, and somebody needs to step up and pay those bills,
03:35because the question is going to be asked whether you've incorporated that debt in considering a rate increase,
03:41and whether the public is being asked to take a rate, will be asked to accept an increased rate
03:48to cover the debt that the government is not paying.
03:51Vanessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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