Over $36m paid to JPS, NWC customers

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 AprilJune 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.