Statement by the Water Services Corporation

The Water Services Corporation refers to press reports that linked the timing of the issue of water and electricity bills with the general election. The WSC would like to note that the issue of bills is being delayed by teething troubles in the commissioning of the new Water Services Corporation's computerised water accounting system.

The Corporation has previously explained the process of computerisation it is going through, with the ultimate aim of giving its customers a better service. A major part of this process is a Water Accounting Module by means of which meter readings are validated and processed to generate bills.

This new system is ambitious, complex and innovative in nature. It provides one stop shop service to customers in most matters ranging from applications for new service, to invoicing and queries. It provides management information for water accounting, and when fully developed is an invaluable tool for helping to pinpoint and hence to control water losses. Its development coincided with revised water tariff, based on benefits linked with customers not services. This required creation of new specific databases.

System integration testing proved to be a very long process, mainly due to system complexity and the importance attached to reliability. Some technical problems, related to overall systems performance were experienced and most have by now been cleared. Processing of bills is now in hand and is proceeding smoothly.

Customers are assured that their next household invoice will consist of the standard quarterly water electricity bill and not an accumulated bill of over four months. It is envisaged that the following quarterly invoice will be issued within two or three months and after the normal pattern of invoicing will be reinstated.

The new administration is proud that the Water Services Corporation has overcome the delays which have accumulated over the past months and that in a matter of days helped the corporation formulate a new fully computerised system which has been designed, developed and implemented in-house by its own Management Information Systems Unit.