Northern Ireland Water (NIW) has been found guilty of breaching its operating licence and is set to be ordered to improve its performance, energy regulators announced today.
The move follows an investigation by the region’s Utility Regulator into a £16 million (€19 million) funding black hole caused by miscalculations of revenues.
The government-owned supplier blamed the error, which emerged in February this year, on an over-estimation of revenue from business customers,
Regulator Iain Osborne has now proposed to issue an enforcement order on NIW, compelling the provider to address deficiencies highlighted by his investigation. His decision must be subjected to a 28-day public consultation before he can proceed with the legal move.
In response, NIW has offered to provide legally binding undertakings to the regulator to improve its systems of planning and control.
While the regulator’s investigation found no evidence of dishonesty or a conspiracy to hide information it did flag up serious shortcomings in the area of management and data collection.
PA