Water Department investigates separate billing from electricity

Basseterre, St. Kitts, September 27, 2011 (SKNIS): The Water Services Department of St. Kitts is investigating the feasibility of separating its billing services from that of the recently formed St. Kitts Electricity Company.

Water Services Manager and Water Engineer Cromwell Williams explained to the St. Kitts and Nevis Information Service that historically, there was one billing centre for both electricity and water utilities that was run chiefly by the former Electricity Department. As such, when Caribbean Utilities Management Company took over the operations of the Electricity Department in August of this year the billing arrangements remained the same.

Mr. Williams explained that for financial and accounting reasons it is much easier to have cheques written in the name of “St. Kitts Electricity Company.” He outlined that should cheques continue to be endorsed to the Accountant General, the process would be much slower and more complicated than the preferred and proposed procedure of the St. Kitts Electricity Company.

The Water Services Manager revealed that at present there is a monthly arrangement between Government and the Management Company that allows the St. Kitts Electricity Company to keep a percentage of the income as payment for continuing the billing procedures on behalf of the Water Services Department; the balance is then transferred to the Accountant General. The creation of separate billing centres for water and electricity would remove the need for such a process – hence the investigations into such a possibility. As a fully incorporated business entity, the St. Kitts Electricity Company is already responsible for its own collections and out of these manages its own business.