By YASMIN?POPESCU

FN?Reporter

yasmin@nasguard.com

After the recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers report which was made public this week, the Grand Bahama Power Company has responded to say it welcomes the results of an independent audit of the accuracy of its billings and fuel surcharge calculations as well as metering and billing process.

"The results provide valuable feedback to aid the company in its ongoing improvement plans," said the company in a press release. The company says that overall, the report confirmed the integrity of billing practices and validated the accuracy in the company's fuel surcharge calculations.

The release said in all cases, both the bill calculations and fuel surcharge calculations were found to be accurate.

It then when on to give some background on the new majority shareholder group, Emera, stating that immediately after Emera gained majority ownership of the Grand Bahama Power Company, an internal review of many of their processes was conducted.

"Those internal audits identified the need for improvements to GBPC's documentation of processes and training program for employees," the release continued. "As part of a three-year turnaround plan for GBPC an improvement plan was developed to address these issues. This audit has assisted in directing those efforts that will ensure related processes at GBPC are modified to align with accepted best practices. Some improvements have already been made, with an expected completion date of 2013 for all recommendations.

"For the most part, the recommendations put forth by the independent auditors are not the result of a deficiency within GBPC's processes, but involve formalizing and improving our procedures. For example, the audit identified that there were inconsistencies in the way meter anomalies are recorded; some manually and others entered into an electronic handheld device. While this inconsistency didn't necessarily result in incorrect billing, we will be establishing and implementing a recording protocol to bring more consistency to our business and customers."

Tony Lopez, GBPC's CFO was quoted as saying: "For us, the value of the audit comes with the opportunities it identifies to strengthen some of our processes. It supports and enhances an internal improvement program currently underway that ensures we are working toward alignment with accepted best practices."

The release said that included in the GBPC improvement plan, and now supported by third party audit findings, are enhancements to standards and procedures for metering and customer service, and training for metering and customer service staff.

Lopez said on this: "With the high price of fuel, we know electricity is not an insignificant cost. We take our responsibility to provide our customers with the best product at the best price seriously. With the dedication of our employees, we made significant progress on several fronts over the past year, but we know there is still a lot of room for improvement. We're working on it."

The release then said the GBPC is reviewing all of the audit's recommendations, and promised to prioritize and plan for improvements that will help better serve its customers.

"In fact, the utility has already adopted the recommendation to have the fuel charge and the base tariff separated, as reflected in the recent tariff restructuring."

However the company cautioned at the end of the release that it continued forward-looking information and should not be read as a guarantee of future events, performance, or results, and will not necessarily be an accurate indication of whether, or the times at which, such events, performance or results will be achieved.

"Emera disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities laws," the release concluded.

What are your thoughts on the cost of electricity on Grand Bahama? Write to jfleet@nasguard.com