The District of Columbia’s Inspector General (IG) issued its final report on the Audit of Residential Customer Billing for Water Usage and the Customer Complaint Process, and concluded that the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority’s (WASA) bills are accurate and its meters accurately measure consumption.

As a result of some customers’ complaints and hearings held before Councilmember Carol Schwartz’s Public Works and the Environment Committee last year, Jerry N. Johnson, WASA General Manager, requested the Inspector General to conduct an investigation to test the accuracy of meter technology, to validate the accurate transmission of customer bills, and WASA’s customer responsiveness.

The IG conducted its first audit report to address issues related to WASA’s residential water meters and the accuracy of the new residential water meters. The results of the audit were issued on December 23, 2003 and concluded the District’s residential water meter readings are accurately recording water flow and accurately transmitting water meter readings to WASA’s receiving units.

The second issue the IG investigated related to the accuracy of the customer billing system for the new automated meter reading (AMR) and the efficiency and effectiveness of the customer complaint process. The results showed that WASA accurately processed residential customer billings that reflected the water usage reported electronically from the water meters. The IG concluded that WASA could improve the process for responding to customer complaints, and did cite seven separate minor examples where WASA customer responsiveness could be increased. In all cases the issues cited were addressed prior to the conclusion of the IG’s review.

“This completes the review of our AMR project, and we are pleased with the findings of the Inspector General,” stated Jerry N. Johnson, WASA General Manager. “The IG found that our new meters accurately measure water usage and that the automated meter reading (AMR) technology accurately transmits these readings to our customer billing system. We have taken the corrective action to address all the issues cited in the audit report to improve our customer service efforts.”

WASA has installed a total of 111,668 new meters (90% of its customers) in the District of Columbia. The meter exchange is to be completed at the end of 2004.