NAO says no official position yet on excessive utility bill payments

The National Audit Office (NAO) says that a draft report concluding that consumers paid extra charges on their utility bills does not necessarily reflect their final position on the matter.

In a statement on Wednesday, the NAO said that media references to works in progress do not constitute the NAO's official position, "and are damaging to the organisations and stakeholders involved".

"Within this context, the NAO solicits comments from audited entities by forwarding its draft reports under confidential cover. The distribution of this documentation is restricted to officials who are in a position to contribute towards the final version of the report."

Earlier on Wednesday, the Times of Malta reported that the NAO found that consumers might have paid "extra charges" totalling €6.5 million on their utility bills.

The newspaper said that the report was as yet unreleased, but that the NAO's findings revealed that 46% of the accounts analysed in the audit did not result in any significant variance between the two billing methods.

However, extrapolation exercises found that there had been a €4.6 million variance in electricity bills and a €1.9 million variance in water bills.

In reaction to this, the Nationalist Party went on to accuse the government of robbing utility customers from "millions" in additional payments on their energy bills, while pledging that a Nationalist administration would return €50 million in over-charged bills from eight years of billing since Enemalta changed its billing structure.

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