Flood Of Errors On Water Bills Slammed

There has been renewed criticism of the body that supplies water in NI after another failure in its billing system.

The Ulster Unionist MLA Fred Cobain, who chairs Stormont's Regional Development Committee, told the BBC this morning that the committee was currently engaged in an enquiry into the whole issue around the data NI Water is using and how robust it is.

It comes as Northern Ireland Water admitted that it overcharged 5,400 customers when incorrect bills were sent out to non-domestic customers including businesses, schools and churches.

It has emerged that some were overcharged as much as £4,000 while 2,400 customers were charged too little, and the company has since announced they will only have to pay back half of what they owe.

The blunder will reportedly cost the organisation up to £250,000.

Mr Cobain said that the introduction of domestic water charges is likely to prove a "shambles" given that Northern Ireland Water has not even managed correct billing for non-domestic customers.

"When NI Water has managed to charge over 5,000 businesses, farms, schools and churches too much, and over 2,000 too little, it doesn't inspire confidence for the prospect of domestic billing going live," the north Belfast MLA said.

"While I recognise that NI Water is working very hard trying to put systems in place, that means nothing to customers whose bills are wrong."

Last year Northern Ireland Water underestimated its forecasted revenue by £20m.

This error would have resulted in every household facing £30 extra on their water bill. Soon afterwards, the company's boss, Katherine Bryan, resigned.

It is thought that the problem began around the time Northern Ireland Water was formed in 2007 - incorrect data was passed from the old Water Division to the new publicly owned company.

"The original data they got from the Water Division clearly wasn't robust enough - the managers in Northern Ireland Water should have known that," said Fred Cobain told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster."

Criticism is cross-party with Tommy Gallagher, an SDLP MLA claiming the whole Northern Ireland Water charging system is a shambles: "If water charging goes live for domestic customers and the data is the same, which it will be, we could again have significant problems with regards to bills, which would be horrendous.

"The whole Northern Ireland Water charging system is a complete disaster," he said.

Last summer, Northern Ireland Water was found to have "committed serious management shortfalls and possibly breached its licence".

The verdict was delivered by the Utility Regulator which told the company to fix what it calls "major deficiencies".

After NI Water boss, Katherine Bryan resigned, it appointed Laurence MacKenzie as its new Chief Executive.

He is currently head of Northern Ireland Electricity.

The company's Chairman Chris Mellor has been running the organisation since Ms Bryan resigned in May 2008.

(BMcC/JM)