The Editor, Sir:

I read in The Gleaner of August 25, 2006 a report on a media briefing hosted by the Consumer Advisory Committee on Utilities (CACU) in connection with the recent introduction of fees for the payment of bills by some collecting agencies for three utility companies.

While I do not agree with everything stated or proposed by CACU, I applaud its activism and support any reasonable action taken to protect the interest of the much abused Jamaican consumer.

What was not stated in your report or, it seems, elsewhere in the media, was that CACU was an advisory body to the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) operating out of, and with a secretariat in its office. I only discovered this after reading your report and contacting CACU. I do not know by what authority it operates, how its officers are appointed, whether they are paid and, if so, by whom. CACU should make full disclosures of its antecedents and status to the public.

Conflicting signals

As a utility customer for over 46 years who, a few days before the press briefing had dispatched a formal request to the OUR to intervene in this bill payment issue, I am concerned at the conflicting signals coming out of the OUR. On one hand, CACU is adopting a hawkish attitude, girding its loins and preparing for war. On the other hand, the top brass of OUR in its utterances on radio is adopting an owlish attitude, wringing its hands and apparently like Pilate washing its hands of the matter. The OUR has issued no statement on the matter. This is most unsatisfactory.

Most customers cannot pay bills online or by telephone. They must pay directly to the utility companies or their agents. Under the new regime, although the cost of collecting has been factored into consumers' bills, millions of extra dollars are being unjustly extracted from them. The utility companies are obtaining a substantial benefit at their expense. They are causing or allowing customers to be manoeuvred into a position where they may either have to pay fees to pay their bills or suffer severe inconvenience and even disconnection of service.

Power to act

The new system has deprived customers of over 80 per cent of their real options to pay bills without a fee, when one considers the opening hours of the various agencies, convenience of location and speed of service, payment when no bills are received or when they are received late and the closure of large numbers of the companies' branch offices. If the OUR has the power to act to resolve this matter - and I think it does - it should act. If it does not act, it should be made to do so. If it is impotent and no agency is empowered to 'correct this breach', then Parliament must intervene. Consumers, too, have rights!

I am, etc.,

BERESFORD HAY

P.O. Box 1191

Kingston 8